Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Kill Team(9E) Xenos

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Greenskin

Why Play Greenskin

• Pros
  • Even the basic Ork Boy has a minimum of 10 wounds and 3 3/4 damage melee attacks, making him a fearsome force in close range.
  • Small board sizes let you get into melee faster.
  • Recreate the days of Gorkamorka!
  • You can make a team of 1 ork nob and 20 grots for more bodies than any other team can hope for. (Note: can doesn't mean should.)

• Cons
  • Your Ballistic Skill is almost universally 5+; most of your damage will have to be done in melee.
  • Your armour is frail to nonexistent. You'll need to stay huddled in cover whenever possible.
  • Your Kommandos are usually outclassed by the normal Boyz team, limiting their use. If you wanna play kommandos, look below at their dedicated team.

GS Wargear

• Skick bomb (2EP): Frag Grenade but with +1 Crit damage.
• 'Eavy Armour (2EP): Operative with 5+ save only. He gains a 4+ save.
• 0-1 Bosspole (3EP): Boss Nob or Kommando Nob only. Bearer gains +1 APL; the more actions the better. Either Nob is already going to be the most powerful warrior in your team, making this a no-brainer.
• Drum Mag (2EP): Pick a shoota or Big shoota the bearer has. That gun gains Ceasless. Kind of wasted on a normal shoota, but great on the big ones.
• Targetin' Fing (3EP): One ranged weapon that is neither a burna or a kombi-weapon gets +1 BS to a maximum of 4+. Notably it's useless on a spanner, who already has a 4+ on all of his guns. A good investment on another ranged unit, though.
• Cuttin' Nozzle (2EP): Burna Boy only. Choppa but Lethal 5+ and -1 normal damage. This lets them do melee, a feature they lost upon the switch to 8E. It also works as a defensive tool because it gives the burna an extra attack and therefore an extra opportunity to parry.
• 0-1 Kustom Force Field (3EP): Spanner only. Allies within 3"/square gets a 5++ save from shooting attacks coming from outside the bubble.

GS Units

A Greenskin killteam consists of any 2 of the following fire teams: <tabs> <tab name="Boy Fire team">

The fireteam is composed of 5 of the following:

• 0-1 boy boss nob (if you don't have another leader)
• 5 of the following:
  • 4-5 Boy Fighter
  • 0-1 Boy Gunner
  • 0-10 boy Gretchin (any number of boy fighters can be replaced by two gretchin each)

• Boss Nob (Combat, Stanch): The big guy. Already fearsome in 40k, the Boss Nob is a powerhouse in Kill Team. Note that, as the rules are written, the Nob is added to the team instead of replacing another ork, further cementing his status as the best choice for a leader. With 13 wounds and a plethora a great weapons for shooting and especially in melee, a Nob can go toe-to-toe with almost anything in the game. Just try not to get caught in the open; his 4+ save can only get you so much.
  • For all intents and purposes, do not bother with a base shoota. You sacrifice your firepower for so little in return. Besides, by grabbing a melee weapon you can grab a kombi-skorcha or kombi-rokkit if you don't want to deal with the slugga's range limitations. While both kombi-weapons give you only one shot of the special weapon, they both give you a shoota as well. The kombi-skorcha gives a short-ranged torrent to deal with mobs while the kombi-rokkit provides a punch with AP1 and deals Splash 1 on a Crit.
  • Melee weapons are what the nob shines at. The base choppa gives you some impressive damage, and the big choppa one-ups it. The killsaw and power klaw both deal more damage than the big choppa on a crit, with the difference being that the killsaw has Rending on a crit to murderize someone while the klaw has Brutal to overwhelm enemy defenses.
• Boy Fighter (Combat, Marksman): The Boyz. As you'd expect, they're tough, hits hard in melee, and don't really have much else going for them. The can either take a shoota and their fists for some shooting ability, or a slugga and choppa to kill things up close, like a proppa' greenskin.
• Boy Gunner (Staunch, Marksman): Boy Gunners can choose between either a Big Shoota (with a disappointingly low damage score but a great RoF) or a Rokkit Launcha for some powerful splash damage.
• Gretchin (Marksman, Scout): Not as worthless as they are in 9th edition. They're still pathetically weak with a mere 5 wounds and a 6+ save, but the mechanics of the game are more forgiving of individual warriors. They have a GA of 2 allowing them to coordinate together and run circles around their less numerous enemies, and they can perform campaign actions while your Orks do the krumpin'.

</tab> <tab name="Clan Kommanando team">

The fireteam is composed of 5 of the following:

• 0-1 Clan Kommanando Nob (if you don't have another leader)
• 4-5 Clan Kommanando Fighter

• Clan Kommanando Nob (Combat, Stanch): Similar stats to the Boss Nob, but with fewer options in exchange for some sneaky stratagems and +1 ballistic skill on his slugga for some reason. If you want to play Kommandos, play the dedicated kommando team, because this guy is easily outclassed by the other Nob's improved wargear selection and the fact that the normal Nob is added to the team instead of replacing a boy.
• Clan Kommanando Fighter (Combat, Scout): Exactly like a slugga boy, but with access to a special ploy. He doesn't even get the increased BS that the Nob gets. Just in case it wasn't clear by now PLAY A DEDICATED KOMMANDO TEAM IF YOU WANT KOMMANDOS, they aren't worth it otherwise.

</tab> <tab name="Specshulist team (Max 1)">

The fireteam is composed of 4 of the following:

• 0-1 Spanner Specshulist(if you don't have another leader)
• 0-4 Burna Boy
• 0-4 Loota

• Spanner (Staunch, Marksman): Your weakest leader with "only" 11 wounds and a 5+ save, he's not that tough and is a great candidate for 'Eavy Armour equipment. While the two Nobs are melee beasts, the Mek is a shooty leader. He can use a rokkit launcha or big shoota better than anyone else on your team, or get a kustom mega-blasta and live dangerously with AP2 and Hot without a way (or reason) to turn it off.
• Burna Boy (Staunch, Marksman): These green pyromaniacs are a great addition in killteam; their relatively short range doesn't matter in such a closed environment, and the 2+ to hit and torrent let a single burna boy lock down a firing lane on his own. And you can take up to four of them.
• Loota (Staunch, marksman): Your dedicated gunline. Their rate-of-fire and high damage can help them deal a lot of damage, but their poor ballistic skill can lead to some disappointment. Needs some experience or a Tagetin' Fing to really be worth it, but with enough investment he can easily earn his keep.

</tab> </tabs>

GS Ploy

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• Dakka! Dakka! Dakka! (1 CP): Until the end of the turning point, when making a shooting attack and retain any crits, make a fail into a retained successful normal hit.
• WAAAAGH! (1 CP): Until end of the turning point, when a greenskin retains two or more normal hits, one becomes a crit. (how consistent rolling 6s are?)
• Get Stuck In! (1 CP): Until the end of the turning point, when a Boy operative uses the Fight action, they can reroll one attack dice.
• Skulk About (1 CP): Until the end of the turning point, a Clan Kommando operative with the Conceal order can auto-retain one successful normal save. Provides protection for Kommandos if the enemy gets line of sight.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• Just a Scratch (1 CP): When resolving a successful hits step from shooting attack or combat, ignore damage inflieced by one attack dice. Space marine transhuman physiology but better, and you'll need it with your low armour saves.
• More Dakka (1 CP): If an operative doesn't deal damage with a shooting attack, they can shoot at the target again. A great bit of insurance for lootas and boy gunners.

</tab> </tabs>

Kommandos (Octarius)

Why Play Kommandos

• Pros
  • Who doesn't love the fun of sneaking up on your enemies with mob of stupid hulking orks?
  • A large host of specialists and equipment options give you plenty of tricks up your sleeves.
  • Your Orks actually practice their shooting, giving them a 4+ BS or better.
  • The Squig Bomb is hilarious and crazy fun to use.

• Cons
  • Your armour is really bad. You'll have to keep in cover as much as you can.
  • An absolute maximum three of your ten models can take a weapon with more than Pentagon/6" range. You have no choice but to fight up close and personal.
  • You have more options than you can fit into one team, it can be really tricky to choose what to keep and what to leave behind.
  • Not exactly a con, but worth mentioning: moreso than the Veteran Guardsmen, the kommando models are tricky to use in both Kill Team and 40k. The cool upgrades and fancy specialists are mostly just a waste of points in 40k compared to just getting more kommando boyz in the squad.

K Campaign Additions

<tabs> <tab name="Tac Ops">

• Blow it Up!: Revealed during the first turn. Your operatives gain a special 2 AP action that they can use while within 1"/triangle of an enemy bulwark and over 2"/circle of any enemies to score 2VP. Whenever you do this action, you can only Dash afterwards, so you'd best find some good cover to protect yourself afterwards.
• Shokk Taktiks: Revealed during the first turn. You score 1 VP if you kill an enemy during the first turn, scoring another VP if you manage to control more operatives than the enemy on your second turn. Simply put, you'd best make sure you can score everything you can ASAP or you wasted a Tac Op.
• Get Stuck In!: At the end of any turn except the last, you score 1 VP if you have at least three operatives in the enemy DZ.

</tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Blitz"> Note - This counts as the Purge Order Spec Op for terms of repeating

1. Rapid Assaults: Finish five games where you scored VP from the Shokk Taktiks or Get Stuck In Tac Ops. You're sneaky orks, so you'd best make sure you can cover the ground and cap your points.
2. Killing Blow: Finish one last game where you win VP through the Execution Tac Op. You've had your fun with mucking about, now you get to krump the enemy!

Completing this Spec Op scores 1 XP for all operatives who died by enemy hands and 1 RP. In addition, you get the option to either grab a piece of rare equipment or increase your asset cap by +1. </tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Rampant Destruction"> Note - This counts as the Demolition Spec Op for terms of repeating

1. Light the Fuses: Finish five games where you scored VP from the Sabotage or Blow It Up Tac Ops. Both require you to mark terrain pieces, so be sure you can get enough breathing room to finish your goals.
2. Return to the Clan: Finish one last game where you score VP from the Behind Enemy Lines Tac Op. You've done your damage by this point, so you can focus more on getting to the other side this time.

Completing this Spec Op gives you 1 RP and the ability to use the Equipment Drop requisition twice without spending RP. In Addition, all your operatives automatically pass any casualty and recovery checks. Enjoy your loot! </tab> <tab name="Battle Honors">

1. Skinna: When this operative fights in melee, one roll of 5+ can count as a crit. Melee is where most Kommandos belong, so any chance for more crits helps.
2. Irritable: This Operative adds +1 to both damage profiles of their melee weapons whenever they're not at max wounds, which can help offset their lack of sneakiness.
3. Destructive: Whenever this operative charges, they gain Relentless on their melee attacks for their next Fight action. Just the thing you need to guarantee those hits.
4. Shifty: If this operative is shot at while behind cover and are either Readied or using the Conceal order, you can score two saves as a result of cover rather than the default of one.
5. Thievin' Git: When selecting equipment, this operative can pick up one piece of wargear for 1 less EP. Free grenades, a cheaper upgrade, you've got plenty of reasons to save that EP.
6. Ambusher: Once per game, this operative can immediately change their order at the start or end of their activation. Need to hide after knocking down an enemy? Need to exploit Conceal before you can bust out and open fire? You'll get one chance with this.

</tab> <tab name="Requisition">

• Orky Constitution (1 RP): An operative can re-roll their casualty test, recovery check, or battle scar roll. Orks aren't meant to be lying down to heal, they're made for fighting and winning!
• Grab Da Loot (1 RP): Whenever you score your max VPs from mission objectives, you can spend use this Requisition for 1d3 more RP. While it won't cost you anything, it's gonna require a lot of effort in order to be able to even use this.
• Fearsome Reputation (1 RP): One operative scores 3 XP whenever they finish a game where they kill 3+ enemies or 2+ enemies if you nailed an enemy Leader as one of them. This doesn't worry about any XP caps set by being downed, so you're not gonna have anything to worry about mortality costing you.

</tab> <tab name="Assets">

• Territorial Glyphs: When setting up your models, you can drop a Glyph on the board within 6"/pentagon of your DZ. Nobody can be set up within 6" of this unless they're in their own DZ. Meanwhile any of your operatives within 6"/pentagon of this glyph can re-roll one hit die in melee. That former part will be more often usable since it can cut off enemies from a possible objective.
• Loot Hoard: All grenades (whether equipment or actions) can be used twice rather than once. This also allows you to equip kommandos with extra shootas and choppas for 1 EP, though not many would ever really need both of these.
• Explosives Stash: All your operatives except the Bomb Squig gain a new 2AP action. This action can be used within 1"/triangle of a Heavy obstacle and over 2"/circle of any enemies, turning that obstacle into Light terrain. While this sounds rather crushing, this also adds this cover-destruction to the Sabotage or Blow it Up Tac Ops as well, making it vital to scoring VP.

</tab> <tab name="Rare Equipment">

1. Shiny Slugz (2/3 EP): One slugga, dakka shoota or scoped big shoota gains AP1, an easy upgrade to punch past power armor and anything below. Costs 2 EP for a slugga, otherwise it's 3 EP.
2. Mork's Eyeball (1/3 EP): One slugga, dakka shoota, scoped big shoota or rokkit launcher improves their BS by +1 making it more effective as a gun. Costs 1 EP for a slugga and even removes the range limitation, but costs 3 EP for any other gun.
3. Devil's Whispa (2 EP): One slugga gains Silent and Lethal 4+, making it better for close-ranged marksmanship. After all, who'd expect your pistol to be a sniper rifle?
4. Skraga's Choppa (2 EP): One choppa, big choppa, or twin choppas gain Lethal 5+, giving you a chance for higher pain in combat.
5. Fungal Brew (2 EP): Provides you a sorta potion. The bearer loses one battle scar, gains immunity to the injured condition and auto-passes their casualty test. All you need to keep one boy at peak efficiency.
6. Klever Kap (2 EP): Gain +1 CP. All for you to blow on ploys.

</tab> </tabs>

K Wargear

• Choppa (2EP): It's a choppa. Gives your dedicated gun-orks some melee punch.
• Slugga (2EP): A basic sidearm. Really dang useless as everyone either already has one or has a more useful ranged weapon.
• Harpoon (3EP): Maximum two per team. Gives you another pentagon/6" shooting attack with decent damage and a chance to stun for tying up your enemies.
• Sledgehammer (3EP): Maximum two per team. A blunter choppa that trades the increased critical damage of the normal choppa for the Stun ability. A specialized tool for klever boyz.
• Smoke Bombs (3EP): Just like the Space Marine wargear, this is a single-use grenade to make a bubble with a radius of 2"/circle, allowing your team some protection from enemy fire for the turn. Note that this is for any lines of fire going THROUGH the smoke cloud, not just those inside it.
• Stun Grenade (3EP): Another single-use grenade that allows your Orks to potentially rob AP from an enemy on a 4+ (-1 if the enemy is concealed) if within the blast zone.
• Skikkbomb (2EP): Frag Grenade but with +1 Critical damage.
• Dynamite (4EP): Bigger, heavier Stikkbomb with significantly more damage. Note, however, that it's Unwieldy, making it much harder to use properly, and you can only use it once per game.
• Climbing Rope (1EP): Allows the bearer to climb up and down terrain much easier, allowing for more mobile tactics.

K Units

All Kommandos get the unique ability to charge while Concealed, helping compensate for your lackluster long ranged shooting. Note that the bomb squig doesn't have this ability and cannot ever be concealed in the first place.

This Seek & Destroy/Infiltration fireteam consists of 10 the following:

• 1 Kommando Nob
• 9 of the following:
  • 0-9 Kommando Boyz
  • 0-1 Kommando Slasha Boy
  • 0-1 Kommando Breacha Boy
  • 0-1 Kommando Snipa Boy
  • 0-1 Kommando Dakka Boy
  • 0-1 Kommando Comms Boy
  • 0-1 Kommando Burna Boy
  • 0-1 Kommando Rokkit Boy
  • 0-1 Kommando Grot
  • 0-1 Bomb Squig

• Kommando Nob (Combat, Staunch): Still the melee machine you'd expect from any ork nob, this guy has the extra kunning ability to grant any operative within 6"/pentagram of his an extra APL for all manner of clever tricks. And it doesn't even cost him an action to do it, so he can boost himself if he really needs to get shit done. Comes with a slugga and your choice of either the big choppa for accuracy or the power klaw for +1 critical damage and the Brutal ability.
• Kommando Boy (Combat, Staunch, Scout): Your boyz. You've got so many options, you can easily make a team without any of these guys. Even if you really do want them, you can just buy choppas for your other boys with EPs (You can also buy sluggas as well, but everyone already has one or something better). Still, there are only seven other ork options, so if you really hate grots and bomb squigs you'll end up taking one or two. They're also some of the best carriers for some of your gear, especially the harpoon and dynamite, as they aren't sacrificing any serious shooting to use them.
• Kommando Slasha Boy (Combat, Staunch, Scout): An ork even more choppa crazy than others (that's hard to do). He trades his slugga with silenced throwing knives for a bit of ranged potential, but you really want this guy in melee. His twin choppas have the Relentless rule to maximize his slice and dice action, and he has the special ability to deal 2 mortal wounds to any enemy that hurts him in melee on a 4+. Overall he's an incredible asset that's all but guaranteed to bring some serious pain in melee, provided he can get their first. Almost strictly speaking better than the normal boy in every way, even his throwing knives are better than a normal boyz pistol. Given that he can throw knives with Silent, he makes a good candidate for Sneaky Git shenanigans.
• Kommando Breacha Boy (Combat, Staunch): A kommando with a big-ass battering ram. He can use his ram to move straight through thin terrain, and it's a decent melee weapon to boot, although keep in mind it only has 3 attacks, which can cause some problems. With 5/5 damage and the Brutal ability, this guys doesn't care one iota about critical strikes unless he charges into combat, in which case his ram gets the Stun keyword for even more power.
• Kommando Snipa Boy (Marksman): The meme is dead. Ork Snipers are real. His modified version of the Big shoota has the same low damage but high RoF as the normal Boyz one, but trades the fusillade ability for the chance to deal mortal wounds on crits. He has not one but two unique actions, both of which cost 2 AP:
  • 'Av it! lets him do a better fusillade attack, allowing him to unload all 6 shots on one target, and then 4 shots on any subsequent targets (the -2 attacks only applies to the base value of the profile separately for each shot - it doesn't stack based on the previous shots taken).
  • Da Best Spot on the other hand, lets him shoot without breaking cover, compensating for his gun's lack of the Silent ability.
• Kommando Dakka Boy (Marksman, Scout): Another shooting boy. His dakka-shoota is a 5-shot bolter that can re-roll any or all hits when firing at a target within 6"/pentagram of him, and his unique action lets him shoot and dash (or dash and shoot) with it for only 1 AP, making him an expert of run-and-gun.
• Kommando Comms Boy (Staunch, Scout): Your finkin' boy. He's got a plan, which allows him to perform mission actions and Pick Up for 1 less AP, to a minimum of 0. He can also give any other Kommando within 6"/pentagon of him an extra APL, but unlike the Nob his does require an action from him. For weapons, he has the bizarre Shokka pistol, which fires 6 shots that do 1/1 damage each. Seems terrible, until you notice it has Stun and MW2, making it a gun that does serious damage on crits. A great candidate to carry a sledgehammer even if you aren't planning to get into melee, as the extra attack and Stun ability can help him nullify enemy attacks to stay alive.
• Kommando Burna Boy (Staunch, Marksman): A boy with a flamethrower. Unlike normal orks, you can only take one and he can't get a cutting nozzle, so he really has to focus on his shooting or buy a choppa if you expect some melee fighting (and with the extremely short range of his gun, melee is all but unavoidable).
• Kommando Rokkit Boy (Marksman): An ork with a Rokkit Launcha. Not only does he have an un-orkish BS of 4+, but if he stands still before shooting he can re-roll any or all of his attack dice for some serious ranged damage. A good choice for clustered enemies and hard targets.
• Kommando Grot (Scout): Quite different from the standard grots, and extremely useful. He can't take wargear and he's pathetically weak with a mere 5 wounds, but this one has a 5+ save, doubling his survival chances against shooting. Not that the enemy will get much chance to shoot him, he cannot have the Engage order and must remain Concealed, even if an enemy ability would force him to be otherwise. His only weapon is a pathetic little knife with a surprising 1/4 damage, meaning he could theoretically kill a space marine in a single round of combat. But his main selling point is his grappling hook; he can zip around the battlefield with unlimited flying movement as long as he ends his move within 2"/triangle of a terrain piece. In short, the grot is the perfect objective guy to do all the tedious stuff while your orks focus on krumping.
• Bomb Squig: The kamakaze squig is exactly what you would expect; a big dumb ball of teeth and explosives that should be thrown directly into the toughest enemy there is before blowing up. His melee attack is surprisingly decent and he has a good chance of blowing up even if he dies, so feel free to send him into melee. He can't take equipment, gain experience, perform actions, or be concealed, but he also automatically passes casualty tests, making him both expendable and easy to replace. You can't ask for a better distraction.

Kommando Ploys

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• SSSSHHHH! (1 CP): Only usable once per game. Let's every kommando that's hidden from enemies make a free dash action, to help you get your guys into position.
• Dakka! Dakka! Dakka! (1 CP): Until the end of the turning point, when making a shooting attack and retain any crits, make a fail into a retained successful normal hit.
• WAAAAGH! (1 CP): Until end of the turning point, when a greenskin retains two or more normal hits, one becomes a crit.
• Skulk About (1 CP): Until the end of the turning point, Clan Kommando with the Conceal order can Auto retain one successful normal save. protection for Kommandos if the enemy gets line of sight. This can even work against enemies on a Vantage Point.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• Just a Scratch (1 CP): When resolving a successful hits step from shooting attack or combat, ignore damage inflieced by one attack dice. Space marine transhuman physiology but better, and you'll need it with your low armour saves.
• Krump 'Em (1 CP): One Kommando can do a free fight action at the end of the Firefight phase. This is amazing, and you should use it whenever you can.
• Sneaky Git (1 CP): Lets one Kommando (other than the bomb squig) set up anywhere within 2"/triangle of heavy terrain and more than 6"/pentagram away from enemies. Perfect for getting your Nob into prime rampaging territory, or get your Sniper right where he needs to be.

</tab> </tabs>

Tomb World

Why Play Tomb World

• Pros
  • Strongest ranged weapons in game.
  • Near Astartes-level endurance and firepower, and more so under the right circumstances.
  • Some impressive WS and BS scores. Even your lowest warriors got a 3+ WS/BS to blast away foes.
• Cons
  • Another slow kill team, cover can be a bitch.
  • Your wargear is expensive as hell.

TW Wargear

• Devouring Nonoscarabs (3 EP): Limited grenade, indirect bolter with Lethal 5+.
• 0-1 Sempiternal Weave (3 EP): Immortal Leader or Deathmark Leader only. Gains +2 Save.
• Starfire Core (2 EP): Pick a gauss flayer, reaper, or blaster the bearer has. Whenever this gun scores a crit while shooting, it can convert a missed shot into a hit.
• Tesla Weave (2 EP): When an enemy charges into engagement range with the bearer, you inflict a MW for each 5+ on 3 dice.
• 0-1 Mindshackle Scarabs (3 EP): Grants a special 1 AP action to make a visible enemy operative within Square/2" roll against APL; if the die beats the APL, that operative suffers -1 APL, but if you roll more then double the APL you get get a free Shoot or fight action against a friendly operative.
• Hyperphase Blade (2 EP): Upgrades the bearer's bayonet to gain Lethal 5+, making this only useful for warriors and immortals..

TW Units

A common rule shared by your entire army is the Living Metal ability. This allows your operatives to recover 2 wounds on the Ready Operatives step of each turn, giving the Necrons exceptional durability.

The Tomb World Kill Team consists of 2 fireteams

<tabs> <tab name="Necron Warrior Fire team (Max 1)"> This Security fireteam is composed of 5 Necron Warriors.

• Necron Warrior (Staunch, Marksman): They're tankier than most non-marine operatives, but that's without counting some of the tricks they have in store. They come with APL2, a 4+ save, and 9 wounds instead of 11 but each model can recover 2 wounds each turning point so it's a lot more as long the enemy doesn't focus them down. Hopefully you'll have a plan to avoid such a thing happening. Pick between Gauss Flayers which are as effective as Bolters or the Gauss Reaper that is short-ranged but deals +1 damage and P1.

</tab> <tab name="Immortal Fire team"> This Seek & Destroy/Security fireteam is composed of 4 of the following:

• 0-1 Immortal Leader (if you don't have another leader)
• 3-4 Immortal Warrior

• Immortal Leader (Staunch, Marksman): Pretty much the same as the base immortal but with an extra wound and improved BS.
• Immortal Warrior (Staunch, Marksman): An upgrade on the Necron Warrior with +1 W and 3+ save. Choose between a Gauss Blaster equivalent of a heavy bolt rifle, or the Tesla Carbine that swaps AP1 with Splash 1 as a deterrent for melee operatives from moving up.

</tab> <tab name="Flayed One team"> This Seek & Destroy/Infiltration fireteam is composed of 5 of the following:

• 0-1 Flayed One Leader (if you don't have another leader)
• 4-5 Flayed One Warrior

• Flayed One Leader (Combat, Scout): A basic Flayed One +1 wound and WS 2+.
• Flayed One Warrior (Combat, Scout): Your only melee-focused operative. You're essentially working with a necron warrior who gets five attacks with their claws, and all of them have Rending to maximize on any crits you get.
  • The Q1 2022 Dataslate gave a rather decent perk by upping the Flayed Ones' claws from 3/4 to 4/5, making them way more dangerous - on par with your Immortals' weapons.

</tab> <tab name="Deathmark Fire team"> This Seek & Destroy/Recon fireteam is composed of 5 of the following:

• 0-1 Deathmark Leader (if you don't have another leader)
• 3-4 Deathmark Warrior

• Deathmark Leader (Marksman, Scout): Standard Deathmark +1 wound and Balanced on their rifle to offset the 2+ BS they'd normally have. While they do have 2+ WS on their fists, there's no reason for them to even get that close. Leave it to other operatives to punch goons.
• Deathmark Warrior (Marksman, Scout): Your team of snipers come with with a Heavy AP1 sniper rifle. Fortunately, they have 3+ save and 10 wounds, so they're about as durable as an immortal if they need to take some abuse.

</tab> </tabs>

TW Ploys

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• Relentless Onslaught (1 CP): Until the end of the turning point, your operatives can re-roll an attack dice when shooting at an enemy within 6"/pentagon
• Dimensional Concealment (1 CP): Until the end of Turning point, Deathmark operatives can take an action to change their own orders. Letting them jump from hidden to shoot then return to hidden again at the end of their activation.
• Implacable March (1 CP): Until the end of turning point, whenever an operative is given the engage order, a operative can make a Implacable March, adding that missing 2"/circle to move but they can only perform Normal Move (so practically moving 6" instead of 5" when dashing), charge, shoot or fight actions. Expect to use this the moment your operatives have gotten within charging distance or when your gauss reapers can finally fire upon your foes.
• Skulking Killer (1 CP): Until end of the turning point, Flayed One operatives can perform a charge action while in Conceal order.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• Reanimation Protocols (0 CP): When an operative dies, you can place a marker over where they died as well as their order token. During the Ready Operatives step of each turning point, you can roll a d6 and on a 3+ (2+ for Necron Warriors) you can resurrect your operative with d3 wounds right where they fell.
  • The Q1 2022 dataslate knocked the cost of this ploy to 0 - That's right, you can use this any phase where you're losing an operative!
• Living Lighting (1 CP): Whenever an Immortal operative with a tesla carbine scores one or more crits, they can choose to either make it deal Splash 2 damage or extend the range of its splash damage to models within square/3" instead of the standard circle/2".

</tab> </tabs>

Heirotek Circle (Shadowvaults)

Why Play Heirotek Circle

• Pros
  • The Cryptek and Apprentek (understudy) provide all sorts of unusual powers.
  • Strongest ranged weapons in game thanks to the Immortals and Deathmarks.
  • Near Astartes-level endurance and firepower, and more so under the right circumstances.
  • Some impressive WS and BS scores. Even your lowest warriors got a 3+ WS/BS to blast away foes.
• Cons
  • Another slow kill team, cover can be a bitch.
  • Your melee is lacking. Immortals might be able to hold their ground, but nothing more than that.
  • Your Cryptek is a very visible and very high-priority target.
    • Expect people to also target your mostly-defenseless Plasmacytes.
  • On paper the team looks good; in practice you're a bottom performer because of your many glaring weak spots.

HCircle Special Rules

• Living Metal: Same as ever, this is what makes the Necrons as tanky as marines if not more so. Each turn lets all operatives regenerate two wounds, or 1 wound for plasmacytes.
• Reanimation Protocols: Necron reanimation ability triggered in various ways (either by a Tactical Ploy, plasmacyte action, or technomancer action). At the end of every Ready Operatives step, notably before Living Metal, roll a d6 for all reanimation tokens placed. On a 3+, that operative is returned to the killzone around 3"/square of where they died with 3+d3 wounds remaining and an order of your choosing.

Cryptek Actions

While the Crypteks aren't psykers, each does gain two out of three special abilities that effectively make them like one, and the Apprentek can use these actions on their own. As with psykers, you can only cast each power once per turn. <tabs> <tab name="Chronomancer">

• Chronometron: Pick one friendly operative within 6"/pentagon of the Cryptek. They boost their movement by square/+3" and gain a 5+ FNP save, both very handy buffs.
• Countertemporal Nanoine: Drop a mine within 6"/pentagon. Anyone who moves within 6"/pentagon of this mine subtracts circle/2" from their movement, which can hinder any charges or objective caps for the turn.
• Timesplinter: Pick one friendly operative within 6"/pentagon of the Cryptek. Their save now becomes an Invulnerable save, making for an incredible save to ignore overwatch or any such firing lines.

</tab> <tab name="Psychomancer">

• Conjure Trauma: One enemy the Cryptek can see is now counted as Injured, actual wounds be damned and special rules be damned. Custodes are now giant walking shiny targets and lesser foes will be hosed.
• Harbinger of Despair: Place a marker anywhere on the board that lasts for the turn. Whenever an enemy performs an objective action within 2"/circle of that marker, they must spen an additional AP to accomplish it. Similarly, anyone near the marker also counts their APL as one lower for the sake of capping points.
• Nightmare Shroud: Enemies that attack within 6"/pentagon of the Cryptek cannot re-roll to hit and cannot score crits, which is an EXTREME debuff, especially for those enemies that rely on those re-rolls (Ceaseless, Balanced) or rely on the crits (Lethal).

</tab> <tab name="Technomancer">

• Canoptek Reanimation: The medic power. One operative with 3"/square recovers 2d3 wounds, or 1d3 if the operative had resurrected on this turn.
• Nanoscarab Repair Swarm: No operatives are considered Injured. In addition, Living Metal recovers one additional wound and Reanimation Protocols raises operatives with one extra wound.
• Rites of Reanimation: Operatives that die for the first time within 6"/pentagon of the Cryptek can attempt Reanimation Protocols.

</tab> </tabs>

HCircle Campaign Additions

<tabs> <tab name="Tac Ops">

• Unearth Artifice: Revealed during the first turn. You can drop a special token anywhere over 6"/pentagon from your DZ and not on any terrain. Your operatives gain a special action they can use near this token to unearth it and mark it as theirs for 1 VP if you do it before turn 4, plus another VP if you end the game with it in your control.
• Unyielding Ancients: Revealed during the first turn. You score 1 VP if you have 3+ operatives aside from the Plasmacytes within 6"/pentagon of the center of the board or your opponent's DZ, and another VP if one of those operatives is either the Cryptek or Apprentek.
• Worthy of Study: Revealed during turn 1 or 2. Mark two enemy operatives, leaving your opponent to designate one of them as the test subject. When this operative dies, they leave behind a special marker for your Cryptek or Apprentek to claim, scoring 1 VP for each turn where you control this marker and your Cryptek or Apprentek is within 6" of that marker.

</tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Excavate Nexus"> Note - This counts as the Perform Ritual Spec Op for terms of repeating

1. Uncover Structures: Finish five games where you scored VP from the Unearth Artifice, Triangulate, or Central Control Tac Ops. All of these require controlling special spots, so you'll need to make sure that your scorers are well protected.
2. Reactivate Nexus: Finish one last game where you score VP from the Plant Banner Tac Op. One last point to score.

Completing this Spec Op gives you 2 RP and one Cryptek operative or Apprentek gains 5XP to themselves. In Addition, all your operatives automatically pass any casualty and recovery checks. </tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Field Study"> Note - This counts as the Recover Archeotech Spec Op for terms of repeating

1. Collect Data: Finish five games where you scored VP from the Worthy of Study, Retrieval or Mark Target Tac Ops.
2. Activate Dimensional Translocation: Finish one last game where you win VP through the Triangulate Tac Op.

Completing this Spec Op scores 5 XP to spread across your operatives and 1 RP. In addition, you get the option to either grab a piece of rare equipment or increase your asset cap by +1. </tab> <tab name="Battle Honors"> Cryptek operative only

1. Controlling:This operative can use the Command action on any Deathmark or Immortal operative that they can see, which is much handier for backliners.
2. Ingenious: This operative gains all three Cryptek actions. Awesome.
3. Collector: One item this operative grabs costs no EP. Awesome!

For everyone else

1. Enduring: If this operative didn't reanimate during this turn, they can restore an additional d3 wounds via Living Metal. However, this will block you from any other repair actions.
2. Revenant: Add +1 to this operative's reanimation rolls. When they do resurrect, they gain a flat 3 wounds.
3. Unrelenting: This operative can ignore all APL and movement modifiers, which can also include weapons with Stun.

</tab> <tab name="Requisition">

• Amend Protocol (1 RP): You can pick any one operative that isn't your Cryptek operative or Apprentek and doesn't have the Proficient Operative requisition and re-determine any or all Battle Honours they have. If you remove all of them, of course, you can also choose to re-spec them to a different specialism.
• Arcane Treatment (1 RP): Lets you remove a Battle Scar from your Cryptek operative.
• Fearsome Reputation (1 RP): One Cryptek operative or Apprentek gains 2XP whenever you gain a piece of Rare Equipment or expand the asset capacity.

</tab> <tab name="Assets">

• Dimensional Gateway: Lets you use the Dimensional Translocation ploy for free on any operatives of your choosing.
• Repair Scarabs: Once after each battle, a rested operative will auto-pass their Recovery check. Great for getting your troops back on the field at peak efficiency.
• Tesseract Core: Any time you finish a Spec Op mission or expedition stage if you use the Gallowdark Exploration rules, you gain 1 RP.

</tab> <tab name="Rare Equipment">

1. Plasma Crystal (2 EP): One ranged weapon gains MW1 or improves its MW score by 1.
2. Resurrection Beam (3 EP): Cryptek operative or Apprentek only. This grants them the Plasmacyte Reanimator's resurrection beam ability to help raise your troops. Especially handy if you didn't take the Technomancer.
3. Tech-Tendrils (3 EP): Cryptek operative only. An enemy within 2 circles/4" of the bearer loses an attack from any melee weapons they have. It also lets them perform an objective action at a 1AP discount.
4. Rapid Reanimatrix (1 EP): The bearer auto-passes Casualty checks and re-rolls Recovery checks. Throw it on your Cryptek, don't regret it cuz that's your lynchpin for the entire team.
5. Temporic Orb (1 EP): Cryptek operative only. Once per game, you can opt to either re-roll to seize the initiative or add +1 to your existing roll.
6. Hunter Scarab (1 EP): Grants a single-use ranged attack that does pitiful damage but has Indirect and No Cover as well as MW1 if you get lucky with a crit.

</tab> </tabs>

HCircle Wargear

• Phase Oculars (2 EP): Deathmark operative only. Gives them a special free action to pick one enemy operative and change one successful hit against that operative into a critical hit (resolving MWx critical hit rule accordingly).
• Hyperphase Blade (2 EP): Immortal operative only. Upgrades the bearer's bayonet to gain Lethal 5+.
• Tesla Weave (2 EP): When an enemy operative charges into engagement range of the bearer, roll three d6. For each result of 5+, that enemy operative suffers 1 mortal wound.
• Arcshock Projector (1 EP): Immortal operative equipped with a tesla carbine only. Each time the bearer makes a shooting attack with a tesla carbine, for that attack, for the purposes of the Splash X critical hit rule, inflict mortal wounds on each other operative Visible to and within 3"/square of it (instead of 2"/circle).
• 0-1 Phase Shifter (3 EP): Cryptek operative only. This operative gets a 4+ invulnerable save.
• Devourer Nanoscarabs (3 EP): Limited grenade, indirect bolter with lethal 5+.
• 0-1 Quantum Reanimytes (3 EP): When friendly Hierotek Circle operatives are within 3"/square of the bearer, each time that operative would lose a wound as the result of a mortal wound, roll one D6: on a 4+, that wound is not lost.

HCircle Units

This Recon/Security Kill Team is composed of the following:

• 1 Chronomancer or Psychomancer or Technomancer
• 1 Plasmacyte Accelerator
• 1 Plasmacyte Reanimator
• 0-5 of the following:
  • 0-5 Deathmarks
  • 0-5 Immortal Guardians
  • 0-1 Apprentek
  • 0-1 Immortal Despotek

• Cryptek (Staunch, Marksman, Scout): While technically three different profiles, all three Cryptek variants carry a lot of similarities. All of them get 11 wounds on a 3+ save, all of them get a special free command to let one Immortal or Deathmark within 6"/pentagon of themselves or the Despotek perform a free fight/overwatch or perform an objective action, and all of them can shoot through the Apprentek, measuring all ranges from them and also being able to re-roll any hit rolls of one number. The Q4 2022 Balance Dataslate did them quite a favor by not only buffing their BS, but also improving their wounds to a surprisingly monstrous 13 wounds, on tier with marines.
  • Chronomancer: The only Cryptek with a choice in weapons between the weaker aeonstave that has Blast on its ranged profile as well as Lethal 5+ and Stun or the entropic lance with high damage at range (with AP1 and MW3) and a weaker melee profile with frightening crits. Their powers focus a lot on buffing your other operatives, allowing them to ignore more of the enemy's distractions while performing objectives.
  • Psychomancer: The Psychomancer is a debuff machine to the extreme. This sadly comes at the cost of some really dismal combat, with the abyssal lance dealing abysmal damage* but relies on covering enemies with a ranged blast with Splash 1 and a melee attack with Reap 3. If you field this Cryptek, they will absolutely need bodyguards to keep some distance between themselves and the targets.
    • The lance does get notable better if your in "Close Quarters" space hulk style board. With lethal 5+ on splash and blast you could do a lot of damage if you get crits/mortal wounds to bounce around between a small group.
  • Technomancer: The medic of the Crypteks and the one you need if you want to make the most out of Reanimation Protocols. However, their combat power is less than stellar, with the staff of light only being decent with AP1 at range and having decent crits in melee with Lethal 5+. While not exactly terrible, they have no reason to be in combat, as they need the space in order to perform their special actions.

• Apprentek (Staunch, Marksman): Your lesser Cryptek is as powerful as your Technomancer in combat, with their arcane conduit being a staff of light without the Lethal. Their big value is their ability to use one Cryptek Power that you didn't use this turn as well as being a proxy for your Cryptek to fire from. Inversely, you can also have your Apprentek fire their weapons through the Cryptek for all the same benefits, which might help for the much weaker Crypteks.
• Immortal Despotek (Staunch, Marksman): An Immortal with an Ego, these aren't any better than the base Immortals aside from, though they do have values with the Cryptek's non-unique action as well as a better WS/BS. In addition, the Despotek has a special action that lets them grant a free Command Re-roll ploy on one Immortal that fights or shoots within 6"/pentagon of them.
• Immortal Guardian (Staunch, Marksman): Your mobile gunline Immortals are no slouches, likely to compensate how the rest of the army isn't very cut out for firepower. Your weapon choices are stuck between the high-power AP1 gauss blaster if you need to wipe out marines quickly and the weaker but more rapid-fire tesla carbine with Splash 3 to catch unlucky nearby enemies.
• Deathmark (Marksman): Despite having been billed as the elite snipers for the Necrons for as long as they have existed, this entry doesn't make them anywhere near sniper-worthy. That isn't to say that their synaptic disintegrators aren't bad, as they're actually about as powerful as any rifle, but Deathmarks can't fire these while camping behind cover and have no way to perform their surprise-attack shenanigans.
• Plasmacyte Accelerator (Scout): These are not mandatory for their combat prowess. With pathetic weapons, a 5+ save and 5 wounds, they can't even stand up to a fight with even a guardsman. Their value comes from the fact that they have a special ability to give a free AP with a friendly Immortal or Deathmark within 6"/pentagon of them, which will be super necessary considering their plodding speed. Fortunately, the Conceal order is very potent for them as they ignore anything that would normally nullify it and can fall back more easily than other necrons.
• Plasmacyte Reanimator (Scout): Another disappointing combatant, but the Reanimator's value comes in their Reanimation Beam, which lets any friendly operative within 6"/pentagon attempt to reanimate. The fact that this is mandatory is the reason why you have a chance to switch around your Crypteks.

HCircle Ploys

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• Relentless Onslaught (1 CP): Until the end of the turning point, each time a friendly Hierotek Circle operative makes a shooting attack against a target within 6"/pentagon of it, in the Roll Attack Dice step of that shooting attack, you can re-roll one of your attack dice. This Strategic Ploy has no effect on shooting attacks made using the Magnification Conduit ability.
• Intractable March (1 CP): Until the end of Turning point, while a friendly Deathmark or Immortal operative has an Engage order, add 2"/circle to its Movement characteristic.
• Undying Androids (1 CP): Until the end of the Turning Point, each time a shooting attack is made against a friendly Hierotek Circle operative that is not in Cover, in the Roll Defense Dice step of that shooting attack, before rolling your defense dice, you can retain one as a successful normal save without rolling it.
• Dimensional Concealment (1 CP): Until the end of Turning point, friendly Deathmark operatives can take an action to change their own orders. Letting them jump from hidden to shoot then return to hidden again at the end of their activation. this Strategic Ploy can only be used once per game.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• Dimensional Translocation (1 CP): Use this Tactical Ploy in the Set Up Operatives step, when you would set up operatives. Select one friendly Deathmark operative to be set up in a hyperspace dimension instead. In the Firefight phase of the first Turning Point, that operative is considered to be within the killzone for activation purposes and must be activated as normal. When it is, set it up with an order of your choice anywhere in the killzone that is more than 6"/pentagon from the enemy drop zone and any enemy operatives. That operative is treated as having performed a Normal Move action (subtract action points accordingly), then continue its activation as normal. You can only use this Tactical Ploy once.
• Leech Power (1 CP): Use this Tactical Ploy when a friendly Cryptek operative is activated. Select one other friendly Hierotek Circle operative within 2"/circle of that Cryptek operative. If that other friendly operative's APL is not negatively modified (in total after applying all modifiers), subtract 1 from its APL and add 1 to that Cryptek operative's APL.
• Cortical Subjugation (1 CP): Use this Tactical Ploy when a friendly Cryptek operative is selected as the target of a shooting attack. Select one other friendly Hierotek Circle operative that is Visible to and within 2"/circle of that friendly Cryptek operative and is not within Engagement Range of an enemy operative. Resolve that shooting attack against that other friendly operative instead (it is treated as a valid target).
• Commence Reanimation (0 CP): Use this Tactical Ploy when a friendly Hierotek Circle operative is incapacitated for the first time during the battle. That operative can attempt reanimation.

</tab> </tabs>

Hunter Cadre

Why Play Hunter Cadre

• Pros
  • Some seriously powerful guns with markerlights for support
  • Drones provide bullet shields for your squishy T'au as well for other purposes.
  • Stealth Suits are really powerful cover campers

• Cons
  • Tau are even squishier in melee now than they were in the last edition. No kroot for backup, no pulse pistols for giving those ork boyz a surprise shot in the face. Now more than ever, you need to make maximum use of terrain and fire lanes to keep the enemy far, far away.

HC Wargear

• Markerlight (2 EP): Provides an additional Markerlight. Useful if you're focusing more on fire warriors or stealth suits.
  • In case you need it: Markerlight spends an AP to mark an enemy operative for the rest of the turn. Whenever any of your operatives (Which might include the one who just marked it) shoot upon this target, they can re-roll one hit die.
• Photon Grenade (2 EP): Target an enemy operative and roll a d6, subtracting 1 if they're beyond pentagon/6" of the bearer or if the enemy's not in LoS. On a 2+, the target gets marked, losing the ability to Dash and suffering a penalty to their movement. While it's not as effective as actually robbing AP, it can help keep enemies within your sights.
• Target Lock (3 EP): Stealth Battlesuit operatives only. The bearer shoots as if their enemy always has a markerlight on, which makes them a good bit more dangerous - especially with a fusion cannon.
• 0-1 Holographic Readout (2 EP): The bearer can trigger this, letting a friendly non-drone operative within 3"/square to use mission actions at one less AP, giving them more time to shoot or flee the scene.
• 0-1 Stimulant Injector (3 EP): Once per game, the bearer can pop this, gaining a 5+ FNP save, ignoring APL penalties and negating the debuffs that being injured imposes - which can be critical when you need that one T'au to perform at their best for one more turn.

HC Units

Consist of 2 fire teams <tabs> <tab name="Fire Warrior Fireteam">

This Security fireteam is composed of 6 of the following:

• 0-1 Fire Warrior Shas'ui (if you don't have another leader)
• 5-6 Fire Warrior Shas'la

• Fire Warrior Shas'ui (Marksman): A slightly improved fire warrior. Aside from the extra wound and improved BS, it offers little else.

• Fire Warrior Shas'la (Marksman): Your average fire warrior isn't much different than a guardsman aside from the better save and better guns. The pulse rifle and carbine are effectively identical, meaning that the choice is up to cosmetics on a markedly better gun. The pulse blaster isn't so - it's not so great at range, but it's damage improves up-close and provides AP1.

</tab> <tab name="Pathfinder Fireteam">

This Recon fireteam is composed of 5 of the following:

• 0-1 Pathfinder Shas'ui (if you don't have another leader)
• 3-6 Pathfinder Shas'la
• 0-2 Pathfinder Heavy Gunners

• Pathfinder Shas'ui (Marksman, Scout): A slightly better pathfinder, still carrying markerlights. Rules as written you do not replace one Pathfinder model with a leader like the other two Fireteams, but instead add a Pathfinder model to the Fireteam giving you seven models total. Something to keep in mind when selecting a leader.
• Pathfinder Shas'la (Marksman, Scout): The base pathfinder's pulse carbine is more than a match for a lasgun and can even outfire a bolter. That said, you will have another need that might outpace the shooting - markerlights. The base pathfinders (and Shas'ui) are the only operatives that get this action natively without being marker drones.
• Pathfinder Heavy Gunner (Marksman, Scout): While lacking the markerlights that other pathfinders get, the guns this guy get are more than useful enough to compensate. The ion rifle gets P1 on a crit, but you can overcharge it to risk Hot for better damage and AP1. The rail rifle comes with AP1 by default, but Lethal 5+ allows it to easily score mortal wounds on a crit.

</tab> <tab name="Stealth Battlesuit Fireteam">

This Infiltration/Recon fireteam is composed of 3 of the following:

• 0-1 Stealth Battlesuit Shas'vre (if you don't have another leader)
• 0-3 Stealth Battlesuit Shas'ui

• Stealth Suit Shas'vre (Marksman, Scout): While given the complementary wound and improved BS due to a leader.

• Stealth Suit Shas'ui (Marksman, Scout): Stealth Suits make a lot of use out of the Conceal order, as they will always be considered concealed and behind cover unless someone's practically shooting at them from point-blank or popping Blast weapons. This combined with their tanky statline can make them a serious pain in the ass.
  • Their options are both fairly potent in their own right. The burst cannon comes with Fusillade for split fire and Relentless lets you re-roll for more hits. The fusion blaster is short-ranged but has AP2 and deals a truckload of mortal wounds on a crit.

</tab> <tab name="Drones"> Drones are unique in that they aren't really their own fireteam so much as they are used to supplement what you do have. That said, each one is hyper-focused on their roles, as they cannot perform any objective actions or use any equipment and capping objectives is a lost cause with their APL counting as 1 less. In addition, they're subject to Savior Protocols, which allows a friendly non-drone operative to use them as bullet shields if they're nearby.

Your can replace an operative with a drone (Stealth Battlesuit Shas'ui gives two drones).

• 0-1 MV1 Gun Drone (Marksman): This drone is little more than a pulse carbine with Relentless, giving you some practically guaranteed hits and little else. While it can be used as a bullet shield, you're going to be sacrificing a gun to do so.
• 0-1 MV4 Shield Drone (Staunch): One of the drones better suited to being a bullet sponge, this one comes with a 4++ save as well as a 5+ FNP, which will be a very useful combination in protecting your T'au from bullets. This makes the shield drone better for being a dedicated bodyguard for a certain operative.
• 0-1 MV7 Marker Drone (Staunch, Scout): Provides a free source of markerlights if you're unable to afford it on one of your other operatives or didn't bring in the pathfinders. It does nothing else besides that, which can be troubling - especially if you're bringing in the less than numerous stealth suits.
• 0-1 MB3 Recon Drone (Staunch, marksman, Scout): Pathfinder only. Counts as two selections. A beefier drone that comes with a burst cannon for serious heavy fire. By itself, this lends pretty well to making it a tank drone if you have nothing else to spend. However, it also has a unique action that marks an enemy and nearby ally, letting the ally re-roll all hit dice when shooting the designated target.
• 0-1 MB31 Pulse Accelerator Drone (Staunch, Scout): Pathfinder only. This drone is excellent for supporting any member of your kill-team as it boosts all pulse weapons within square/3" of it. This makes one shot the pulse weapon makes a guaranteed hit (not a crit tho), which is already helpful enough.
• 0-1 MB33 Grav-Inhibitor Drone (Staunch, Scout): Pathfinder only. Made to piss off any offensive acts. Anyone who charges or dashes within pentagon/6" of this thing will suffer a loss to their additional movement. In addition, it can spend an AP to set up a grav-wave that makes it easier for friendly operatives to fall back, a very necessary action considering your obvious weaknesses.
• 0-1 MB36 Guardian Drone (Staunch): Fire Warrior only. This drone isn't quite as tanky as the shield drone with only a 5++ invuln, but it can spend an AP to spread that save to other operatives - a welcome gift considering how numerous fire warriors are.
• 0-1 DS8 Tactical Support Turret (Staunch, Marksman): Fire Warrior only. Despite being called a drone, it's pretty much a static emplacement (which is an oddity since marines and guardsmen can't grab Tarantulas) that can occasionally take bullets for fire warriors. Its missile pod allows it to lay down the hurt pretty easily. The smart missile system isn't much, but its special rule lets it nail any enemy not in cover if you use it...with the serious caveat of reducing its BS to a 6+.

</tab> </tabs>

HC Ploy

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• Aimed Pulse Volley (1 CP): Any time a Fire Warrior operative shoots their pulse rifle without moving, they get to re-roll one hit die.
• Breach and Clear (1 CP): Whenever a Fire Warrior operative shoots their pulse blaster, any targets within 3"/square don't count as hiding behind cover and you can re-roll one hit die. As these guns operate best up-close, this is a good pick for when you want something wiped out immediately.
• Camouflage Field Engagement (1 CP): Grants Stealth Battlesuits a special action that lets them change their orders. As they're the kings of concealment, this can let them shoot and fade, hiding out of sight from any retribution.
• Recon Sweep (1 CP): Pathfinder operatives within 6"/pentagon of a table edge can immediately Dash, but they must end that move within 6"/pentagon of a table edge that isn't your own.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• Supporting Fire (1 CP): Select an operative. When that operative shoots, they must target an engaged enemy within 6"/pentagon and not blocked by an ally. This will often see a lot of use as your guys will never win a fistfight, so you'll be needing someone else to wipe the enemy out.
• Stand and Fire (1 CP): A non-drone operative can fire their gun in melee, ignoring any rules for it. Really, this should only apply for base pathfinders and fire warriors that don't use the pulse blaster, as the pulse rifle and carbine are the only guns that lack some sort of special rule.

</tab> </tabs>

Pathfinders (Chalnath)

Why Play Pathfinders

• Pros
  • Markerlights do a ton more than they do for compendium Tau
  • All your guns have full range. No pistols for you!
  • Your guns remain pretty powerful.

• Cons
  • Your armor is very light, requiring you to stick to cover.
  • Aside from a few options, your melee remains laughable.

PF Special Rules

• Art of War: When a Shas'ui operative triggers this, you pick between one of the following rules for the turn:
  • Mont'ka: Any operatives with the Engage order can make a free dash action, letting them move into position and then let loose their volleys.
  • Kauyon: When shot at while behind cover, your operatives can retain another save as an automatic save.
• Artificial Intelligence: Drone rule 1. This pretty much is why they aren't useful as anything besides a wall of wounds. They can't use any mission actions and count their APL as 1 lower in regards to capping objectives. LoS is also drawn from any point on the top rim of the drone rather than the base or body. The other massive downside is that the drones can't retain any saves thanks to cover.
• Savior Protocols: Drone rule 2. Any time a non-Drone operative is shot, they can use a Drone operative within 2"/circle of them to take the fire for them, even if they'd normally be out of range. This pretty much turns your drones into floating walls of wounds for your more important Tau.

PF Campaign Additions

<tabs> <tab name="Tac Ops">

• Mark Enemy Movements: Score 1 VP for every turn where you manage to markerlight at least half the enemy kill-team. This might be a bit of a hassle to pull off since it forces you to sacrifice shooting, but it's not impossible, especially with plenty of cover.
• Patient Hunter: Score 1 VP for each turn where you scored more VP from the main objective than the enemy as well as having more than half your team use the Conceal order. This particular Tac Op is specially-made for a team more focused on special actions and capping rather than shooting.
• Killing Blow: Score 1 VP at the end of any turn where you kill enemies with more total wounds than the total wounds of any units you lose that turn. Again, you need to prioritize cover and protection in order to maximize your odds of scoring. Killing Space Marines might help as well.

</tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Mark for Strike"> Note - This counts as the Elimination Spec Op for terms of repeating

1. Track Enemy: Finish five games where you scored VP from the Mark Target, Mark Enemy Movement, or Vantage Tac Ops. All of these pretty much require you to stick out from cover to mark the enemy, so you'll need to rely on cover in order to ensure that this doesn't end up with you getting shot up.
2. Institute Strike: Finish one last game where you win VP through the Plant Signal Beacon Tac Op.

Completing this Spec Op scores 1 RP and the operative that accomplished the final objective gets 5 XP. In addition, you get the option to either grab a piece of rare equipment or increase your asset cap by +1. </tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Philosophy of War"> Note - This counts as the Purge Order Spec Op for terms of repeating

1. Kauyon: Finish five games where you scored VP from the Patient Hunter, Protect Assets or Hold the Line Tac Ops.
2. Mont'ka: Finish one last game where you score VP from the Killing Strike or Execution Tac Op. You've probably had your fill of dancing about by this point, so now you can cut loose.

Completing this Spec Op gives you 1 RP and 5 XP you can spread across all of your operatives. In Addition, you get the option to either grab a piece of rare equipment or increase your asset cap by +1. </tab> <tab name="Battle Honors">

1. For the Greater Good: This operative can use markerlights twice a turn, which has uses if you can't shoot. It also comes with an extra trick that lets an operative who's about to die slap on a sacrificial markerlight on an enemy they're engaged with.
   • This all sounds nice, but it comes with the caveat that you can actually perform the Markerlight action. That means for Marksman and Weapons Experts are wasted upon this, as are most of your drones.
2. Reliant Support: The Supporting Fire ploy costs nothing for this operative to use, which is just as well considering its importance in protecting your foes.
3. Cunning Hunter: Whenever this operative shoots on a turn where they haven't moved in any way, they can score one auto-hit, though can't stack with Merciless Hunter below. Practically an auto-take on the rail rifles.
4. Mercliess Hunter: Any time this Operative shoots at an enemy within 6"/pentagon, they can score one auto-hit. Whereas Cunning Hunter (which this cannot stack with) is more for your rifles, this sees more use on your carbines and is better suited for mobile pathfinders.
5. Martial Philosopher: Allows this operative to pick its own Art of War when your Shas'ui triggers the ability.
6. Capable Under Fire: Whenever this operative is both using the Conceal order and hidden behind light cover, they cannot be targeted by anyone with a vantage point, offering extra protection from enemy snipers.

</tab> <tab name="Requisition">

• Exemplar of the Greater Good (1 RP): Whenever a non-Drone operative suffers a Battle Scar, you can trigger this to gain an instant 3XP. While this sounds awesome, you can use this on each operative only once, putting this more into the role of a desperation button for some spare XP while you focus on healing their scars.
• Repair Damaged Drones (1 RP): A multi-faceted requisition focused entirely upon your drones. Any Drone operatives that are incapacitated can roll an extra d6 for their recovery checks and pick the better one. If they fail their casualty tests though, you can immediately use the Operative Assigned Requisition for free to replace them with another drone.
• Shas'vre (1 RP): Whenever an operative reaches Revered rank, this provides you a special Battle Honour that lets them count Battle Philosophy as permanent after you call it. This can stack particularly well with Martial Philosopher, letting you reap all the benefits with none of the drawbacks.

</tab> <tab name="Assets">

• Aerial Surveillance Drone: Once per turn you can forego activating an operative for the ability to slap a markerlight on one target anywhere on the board. Helpful in freeing up an operative so they can finish another assignment.
• Remote Sensor Tower: During your Scouting Phase, you gain 1 CP if your enemy uses the Infiltrate or Recon action. In addition, you can add +1 to your initiative roll once per game.
• Tidewall Barricade: Your barricades provide a 4++ invuln save for any of your operatives hiding behind them. Note that this specifically calls out Pathfinder operatives, so nobody else can turn this against you...unless you have a mirror match.

</tab> <tab name="Rare Equipment">

1. Experimental Pulse Ammunition (2 EP): One pulse weapon gains an extra shot and the P1 rule. Wasted on the Weapon Expert and Marksman as they already have AP1.
2. Honour Blade (1 EP): Shas'ui Pathfinder only. This improves their bonding knife, giving +1 to WS and both Damage stats, making it a respectable melee weapon.
3. Advanced Cogitation Chip (1 EP): Drone operatives only. This removes a lot of the downsides of being a drone, allowing it to operate independently without needing to be shepherded by the Drone Controller.
4. Shield Generator (2 EP): Grants a 4++ save, an easy and powerful safeguard.
5. Markerlight Grenade (2 EP): Gives you a single-use grenade. When you throw it, roll a d6 for any enemies within 3"/square of the target zone (-1 if they're not visible, -1 if they're over 6"/pentagon away from the bearer). On a 2+, they get a markerlight.
6. Projection Field (2 EP): Once per game you can use this to swap off the bearer's order, letting you strike and fade.

</tab> </tabs>

PF Wargear

• Climbing Equipment (1 EP): The bearer becomes a bit less burdened by climbing and dropping. Climbing up any distance up to three circles will always count as 1 circle/2" for movement and they don't require being right next to the terrain in order to climb. In addition, any drop distance they take counts as half that for movement and can drop to any level they want.
• Drone Repair Kit (2 EP): Gives the bearer a special action in order to restore d3 wounds to a nearby Drone operative. Stick this onto your drone controller in order to guarantee a full 3 wounds.
• EMP Grenade (2 EP): The tau equivalent of the frag grenade is equally capable of handling crowds, but the EMP rule adds an additional edge: It counts as Lethal X with X being the target's save - needless to say that this will hurt for any space marines you fight, but killing isn't a certainty.
• Fusion Grenade (4 EP): Essentially a krak grenade, but its crits deal plenty of mortal wounds in order to guarantee the death of most guardsmen and the like.
• High-Intensity Markerlight (2 EP): Like the marker drone, any time the bearer will slap an enemy with two markerlight tokens whenever they use the markerlight action. Whether it's to replace taking that drone or just to supplement, there's not much this won't be useful for.
• 0-1 Orbital Survey Uplink (3 EP): Pick an enemy operative. That target, as well as anyone within 1"/triangle of them that isn't covered by any overhanging terrain now counts as having a Markerlight, making it an excellent way to exploit those who crowd around a central model.
• Photon Grenade (1 EP): Rather than a weapon, this grenade is used to inconvenience the enemy. When used, target an enemy and roll d6, subtracting 1 if the target's beyond 6"/pentagon and if the enemy's not within the bearer's LoS; on a 2+, the target loses 1 circle/2" of movement and becomes unable to dash. This can help you snatch away an objective.
• Target Analysis Optic (2 EP): When shooting a target with at least one markerlight, the bearer will count them as having an additional markerlight token for some additional benefits.

Markerlights

Unlike with the Compendium pathfinders, your markerlights remain the major menace they're meant to be in the big game. While applying them remains the same, their effects are now cumulative with how many markerlights you stack on, though each tatget loses a markerlight token each turn. Note that these don't work on EMP and Fusion Grenades.

1. Re-roll one hit die when shooting.
2. The weapon gains the No Cover trait when shooting.
3. The BS of this attack is improved by 1.
4. You can target an otherwise-obscured enemy.
5. You can target a concealed enemy as if they had the Engage order unless they're hiding behind Heavy obstacles.

PF Units

Your Recon fireteam is composed of 12 of the following:

• 1 Pathfinder Shas'ui
• 11 of the following
  • 0-11 Shas'la Pathfinders
  • 0-1 Blooded Pathfinder
  • 0-1 Drone Controller Pathfinder
  • 0-1 Assault Grenadier Pathfinder
  • 0-1 Medical Technician Pathfinder
  • 0-1 Transpectral Interference Pathfinder
  • 0-1 Communications Specialist Pathfinder
  • 0-2 Weapons Specialist Pathfinder
  • 0-1 Marksman Pathfinder
  • 0-1 MB3 Recon Drone (Counts as 2 selections)
  • 0-1 MV31 Pulse Accelerator Drone
  • 0-1 MV33 Grav-Inhibitor Drone
  • 0-1 MV1 Gun Drone
  • 0-1 MV4 Shield Drone
  • 0-1 MV7 Marker Drone

• Pathfinder Shas'ui (Marksman, Scout): A slightly better pathfinder, still carrying markerlights. Interestingly, they don't use their guns to fight, but instead wield their bonding knives like in Fire Warrior, giving them something as strong as a guardsman's chainsword and with Balanced. Not only can they trigger an Art of War once per game, but they can also provide a Holographic Readout, allowing a friendly non-Drone operative perform objective actions at a 1AP discount.
• Shas'la Pathfinder (Marksman, Scout): The base pathfinder's pulse carbine is more than a match for a lasgun and can even outfire a bolter. If you're just looking to fill up an open spot on your kill team and don't need a specialist, the basic shas'la won't let you down.
• Blooded Pathfinder (Staunch, Marksman, Scout): A curiosity among your lot, but this guy can act as a forward scout. Their pulse carbine is suppressed, granting it the Silent rule so you can hide this guy in cover and then open fire upon the enemy. Their melee prowess isn't too bad either, as their prosthetic hand hits about as hard as marine's fist.
• Drone Controller Pathfinder (Staunch, Scout): If you ever felt like your drones don't do enough, this is the guy to turn to. When you set them up, you can also set up a drone with the Conceal order within 6"/pentagon of your table edge and more than 6"/pentagon of the enemy's edge and over 3"/square of any enemy operatives. In addition, they can spend an AP to either activate a readied drone (freeing them of a lot of the handicaps dealt by Artificial Intelligence) or give an activated drone an extra Dash or Shoot action (though shooting takes a -1 BS penalty).
• Transpectral Interference Pathfinder (Marksman, Scout): A saboteur of a pathfinder, using their visor to shoot otherwise-obscured enemies. Their special action robs a visible enemy of 1 AP for the turn as they manage to jam their systems somehow (The less said about how you could possibly try this on a tyranid or daemon, the better).
• Assault Grenadier Pathfinder (Staunch, Scout): The Demo-Tau. This particular pathfinder manages to have all three grenade options for free, giving you plenty of EP to spare for other gear. While less notable, the grenadier's helmet also lets them ignore any changes APL, WS, and BS. This means that you can keep firing under any circumstance, even when they're at death's door and needing a medic.
• Communications Specialist Pathfinder (Scout): This opetative works like any other Comms operative in that they have an option to share an AP with nearby allies. Seeing that the team is almost entirely primed for shooting, this doesn't really run into any issues of playing keep-up. Also helpful is the fact that they can still help even without being within support range by throwing markerlights.
• Medical Technician Pathfinder (Staunch, Scout): Your medic, here to keep your pathfinders alive, but not your disposable drones. As with the ones given to the veteran guardsmen and novitiates, this guy can restore a nearby tau to 1 wound and then send them packing, spending 1 AP for both the medical officer and the patient. You can also heal 2d3 wounds for an operative if you didn't resurrect anyone.
• Pathfinder Weapons Expert (Marksman): While lacking the markerlights that other pathfinders get, the guns this guy get are more than useful enough to compensate. The ion rifle gets P1 on a crit, but you can overcharge it to risk Hot for better damage and AP1. The rail rifle comes with AP1 by default, but Lethal 5+ allows it to easily score mortal wounds on a crit.
• Marksman Pathfinder (Marksman): Your true sniper, though lacking with the markerlights. Rather than a pulse carbine, the marksman gets a pulse rail rifle, which is essentially the weapons expert's rail rifle but able to use another type of ammo and doesn't degrade BS when using overwatch. This second ammo type is weaker than the basic ammo type and lacks Lethal, but it gains Silent to allow you to hide the sniper.
• MB3 Recon Drone (Staunch, marksman, Scout): Counts as two selections. A beefier drone that comes with a burst cannon for serious heavy fire. By itself, this lends pretty well to making it a tank drone. However, it also has some additional perks. In the scouting phase you can use this drone to give you the Recon option as well as whatever you were planning to pick (this won't let you game the Initiative if you'd have lost with your default choice) for an extra edge. They also have an action that marks an enemy and nearby ally, letting the ally re-roll all hit dice when shooting the designated target.

• MV1 Gun Drone (Marksman): This drone is little more than a pulse carbine with Relentless, giving you some practically guaranteed hits and little else. While it can be used as a bullet shield, you're going to be sacrificing a gun to do so.
• MV4 Shield Drone (Staunch): One of the drones better suited to being a bullet sponge, this one comes with a 4++ save as well as a 5+ FNP, which will be a very useful combination in protecting your pathfinders from bullets. This makes the shield drone better for being a dedicated bodyguard for a certain operative.
• MV7 Marker Drone (Staunch, Scout): With this entire team being pathfinders, you'd expect the marker drone to be reduntant - WRONG. Any time this drone uses the Markerlight action, it slaps two tokens upon the enemy, granting an immediate No Cover for your next operative. Stacked with other markerlights and you can make for some ridiculous plays.
• MB31 Pulse Accelerator Drone (Staunch, Scout): This drone is excellent for supporting any member of your kill-team as it boosts all pulse weapons within square/3" of it. This makes one shot the pulse weapon makes a guaranteed hit (not a crit tho), which is already helpful enough.
• MB33 Grav-Inhibitor Drone (Staunch, Scout): Made to piss off any offensive acts. Anyone who charges or dashes within pentagon/6" of this thing will suffer a loss to their additional movement. In addition, it can spend an AP to set up a grav-wave that makes it easier for friendly operatives to fall back, a very necessary action considering your obvious weaknesses.

PF Ploy

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• Bonded (1 CP): When an operative shoots, they can re-roll one hit die when they're within 3"/square of a friendly non-Drone operative. While bubbles aren't the most helpful when dealing with grenades or flamers, this can provide you some help in guaranteeing a hit.
• Daring Tactician (2 CP): Triggered on the turn after your Shas'ui Pathfinder uses their Art of War ability. This allows you to keep it in effect for another turn, but its range is reduced to an aura of 6"/pentagon around them. This means that operatives can only get their free Mont'ka dash if they activate it within that distance, and so will the cover perks from Kauyon. Considering how major these boosts are, there's not much surprise how this can be considered 2 CP.
• Recon Sweep (1 CP): Operatives within 6"/pentagon of a table edge can immediately Dash, but they must end that move within 6"/pentagon of a table edge that isn't your own.
• Take Cover (1 CP): Any time a non-Drone operative is shot at from behind cover, you can use this to improve their save by 1. Cover is your singular means of protecting yourself, so you should always be sure to employ it to protect your 5+ save tau.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• A Worthy Cause (2 CP): Once per game at the start of the firefight phase if you don't have, you can trigger this to make one of your non-Drone operatives within 3"/square of the enemy or within 2"/circle of an objective activate immediately. This can allow you to steal the initiative from an opportunistic enemy, but the 2CP cost the Q1 2022 dataslate saddled this with makes it a lot less of an auto-take.
• Reposition (1 CP): RUN AWAY!!! You can make an operative Dash on out of a fight, allowing them to run across engagement range of an enemy without triggering overwatch but they can't end their turns there. Even with your two operatives with some melee prowess, you're still tau and thus shit in melee.
• Supporting Fire (1 CP): An operative can now fire into enemies within 6"/pentagon that are in combat with a friendly operative. When firing, your target won't get any cover from your friend for the sake of designating a target, but they will count as cover in regards to rolling for saves.

</tab> </tabs>

Cadre Mercenary

Why Play Cadre Mercenary

• Pros
  • Orders and cover is a defining feature of Kill Team(9E), using Conceal while behind cover to not get shot down before switching to engage to go on the attack. Kroot is very good at manipulating its current orders.

• Cons
  • Your defenses are lacking unless you make extensive use of cover.

CM Rules

• Masters of Camouflage: Your operative's Defence jumps form a weak 6+ to a respectable and strong 4+ when in cover. Even if you can position yourself to shoot a hiding Kroot, they are still hard to take down with gunfire.

CM Wargear

• Kroot Hunting Rifle (3 EP): Kroot Heavy rifle that deals a mortal wound on a crit. Silent allows you to shoot while Concealed, which you'll often be.
• 0-1 Sure-Foot Charm (2 EP): Fixes only having 1 GA by letting an operative that also started within 3"/square of the bearer to activate after bearer has gone.
• Skinning Blade (2 EP): Upgrade meant more for the carnivores, giving their melee weapon +1 attack and crit damage.
• Trophy Pistol (3 EP): close range Kroot rifle pistol with Balanced and Blast. used to clean up closely huddled enemies.
• Bolas (3 EP): Grants a short-range throw that subtracts -1 AP from target if you beat its wounds on 3d6.

CM Units

This Seek & Destroy/Infiltration/Recon fireteam is composed of:

• 1 Kroot Carnivore Leader
  • 12 of the following:
    • 7-12 Kroot Carnivore Warrior
    • 0-4 Kroot Hound
    • 0-1 Krootox (counts as two selections)

• Kroot Carnivore Leader (Combat, Marksman, Scout): +1 to his WS/BS and wound compared to normal Carnivores.
• Kroot Carnivore Warrior (Combat, Marksman, Scout): Comparable to an elite human (2 APL, GA 1, W8, a 4+ save only when in cover). Armed with the equivalent of a Bolter and Marine Fist, decent when taking out guardsmen and the like. It will go down quickly when not behind a wall, so you'll often be playing a game of the Floor is lava.
• Kroot Hound (Staunch, Scout): Your Kroot version of a good boy. It's not sentient enough to perform mission action or given equipment but its job is to get into melee with its exceptionally fast movement speed and use his rending fangs.
• Krootox (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): Can feel a little cheating - Guardsmen can't take a sentinel but you get a bird-like gorilla with a High powered rifle. It's a pretty fierce linebacker, packing a mountain of wounds on a reliable 4+ save and meaty fists with Brutal to overwhelm defenses. Its gun is also pretty nice with Rending to guarantee a few crits.

CM Ploy

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• Hunting Call (1 CP): All operatives can re-roll an attack dice when performing a fight action.
• Patient Stalkers (1 CP): Operatives with the conceal order can charge this Turning point.
• Fieldcraft (1 CP): For the Turing point, Kroot Carnivores can spend an AP to change their orders. Lets them take a mission or attack action before fading back to being Concealed.
• Perfect Ambush (1 CP): During the first Turning point, all your operatives can change their orders when they activate. Allows for a mix-up of orders after seeing what the opponent is doing. Good Idea of starting everyone as Concealed so the enemy can't shoot them, then switch to engage when you shoot them back.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• A Gory Feast (1 CP): When an operative incapacitates an enemy in melee, gain +1 APL and heal D6 wounds.
• Brute Strength (1 CP): When a Krootox performs a Normal move, Dash, Fall back, or Charge action, it can move through Light parts of Terrain and past other operatives. Makes this monkey chicken very mobile and very dangerous.

</tab> </tabs>

CM Strategies

Just expect to lose, alot, especially in your first 5 or so games.

Basic Strategy

Play the objective, due to your crap armor and low chance to actually hurt anyone with your guns, playing the objective and choosing your Tac Ops wisely is the way to win as Kroot, they are definitely the high skill floor faction for this game, keep your sniper annoying and poking the enemies so they are forced to take him out, while your houhds and Krootox draw fire away.

Skinning Knife Spam

You can always just fit as much skinning knives as you can, concealing your carnivores until its the right time to strike, with good rolls you can gimp a Grey Knight pretty bad in one combat round.

Counterplay

Get the objectives before they do and laugh your ass off while you out damage them.

CM Sample Lists

Krootox and the hounds are required, pure carnivores isnt enough unless youre a conga line god.

Farstalker Kinband (Into the Dark)

Why Play Farstalker Kinband

• Pros
  • Exceptional protection when behind cover.
  • Unlike with the Compendium Kroot, these birds can actually fight worth a damn.

• Cons
  • Your defenses are lacking unless you make extensive use of cover.
  • No Krootox means that you don't have anything for raw strength.
  • You'll need to be a lot more prudent with your orders without free-reign to swap between Concealed and Engage orders.

FK Rules

• Rogue: Kroot remain experts in hiding, and unlike the Compendium's version that just ups saves, the Kinband get the ability to either gain an additional save or upgrade a save into a critical save.

FK Campaign Additions

<tabs> <tab name="Tac Ops">

• Butcher: Revealed the first time an enemy dies. All slain enemies drop a special token that you now need to pick up. Score 1 VP if you kill and collect a quarter of the enemy's roster, with another if you pick up a half of the enemy's roster.
• Balance the Books: Pretty much dependent on your other Tac Ops. You score 1 VP if you score all VP from one Tac Op and a second if you finish the other Tac Op.
• Bounty Hunters: Your enemy marks one operative for you to kill. You score 1 VP for killing this target and a second if you pick up the token that this target drops upon dying.

</tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Kin, First and Foremost"> Note - This counts as the Secure District Spec Op for terms of repeating

1. Fight for Posterity: Finish five games where you scored VP from the Balance the Books or Butcher Tac Ops. Instead, you could also complete five games where you scored VP from Security Tac Ops.
2. Swift Reprisal: Finish one last game where you win VP through the Execution Tac Op.

Completing this Spec Op scores 1 RP and 5 XP for you to spread among your operatives. In addition, all operatives get to automatically pass all Casualty and Recovery checks. </tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Guns for Hire"> Note - This counts as the Elimination Spec Op for terms of repeating

1. Hit Jobs: Finish five games where you scored VP from the Bounty Hunters, Execution or Headhunters Tac Ops. All of them require precision kills, so guarantee that your aim is good.
2. Discretionary Bonus: Finish one last game where you score VP from the Retrieval or Rob & Ransack Tac Op. You got your kills, now to get some cash.

Completing this Spec Op gives you 3 RP and the option to either grab a piece of rare equipment or increase your asset cap by +1. </tab> <tab name="Battle Honors">

1. Savage: +1 attack to all melee operatives to a max of 4. Easy to set for anyone, but means the Cut-Throats ploy is wasted on them.
2. Eye on the Mark: When this operative shoots but doesn't move, the gun gains the No Cover rule. Absolutely lethal on the Long-Sight.
3. Trapper: This operative can charge while under the Conceal order. Wasted on the Stalker.
4. Wiry: This operative can move past any operatives, circumventing the greatest threat of close-quarters environments like space hulks.
5. Leathery Physiology: 6+ FNP save.
6. Clandestine: When this operative is behind cover and under the Conceal order, they cannot be targeted, even by enemies on a vantage point.

</tab> <tab name="Requisition">

• Negotiate (1 RP): Whenever you finish a Spec Op, you can replace one of the Spec Op's rewards with a reward from a second Spec Op so long as it's not something you'd already have gotten and doesn't give RP.
• Honourable Offering (1 RP): Cannibalism at work. Whenever an operative of Veteran rank or higher dies, a number of operatives equal to double their rank gains +1 XP. If this operative merely suffered a Critical Impairment Battle Scar, you can only give 1 XP to up to four operatives.
  • A serious emergency button if there is one, as you can only use this once per operative. In addition, if you did this to a crippled Kroot, they can only recover from this scar on a 6 on the recovery check.
• Debt Owed (1 RP): When an operative fails a casualty check, you gain a blood-debt towards the enemy faction that killed them. Whenever you fight this enemy, the Balanced rule lets them re-roll two hit dice instead of just one. You consider the debt settled after winning a game against this enemy, but you can also prematurely end it, rendering all operatives that didn't fail a casualty check to a Cerebral Affliction Battle Scar.

</tab> <tab name="Assets">

• Spoils Safe: At the game's start, gain +1 CP to use.
• Weapon Workbench: Any core Rare Equipment that works on guns is counted as in your stash, but they can only be applied on your single pistols, rifles and scatterguns. Absolutely wicked with how much you just snagged.
• Meat Locker: If an operative takes a recovery check and wasn't killed during the game, they count as having rested for a second game.

</tab> <tab name="Rare Equipment">

1. Kinblade (3 EP): Kroot Kill-Broker only. Replaces the blade with a fancier blade with 4/5 damage and Balanced and Rending, making it more effective for fighting.
2. Knarloc Hide (2 EP): Reduces all incoming damage by 1 to a minimum of 2.
3. Kroothawk Totem (3 EP): Once per game, you can use this to re-roll for initiative.
4. Ancient Flintlock (1 EP): Didn't expect to see an old-timey gun in a Kroot's hands, did you? One Kroot pistol (single or dual), rifle or scattergun gains Lethal 5+. The scattergun, as expected, doesn't benefit at all from this.
5. Kin Totem (2 EP): Gains a 3"/square aura that lets friendly operatives ignore the Injured condition. The range sadly will be an issue for you.
6. Windmark (1 EP): Add +1"/triangle to movement.

</tab> </tabs>

FK Wargear

• Kroot Pistol (1 EP): Slap a pistol on something that doesn't have one. Not much use to it aside from eating up unused EP.
• Meat (1 EP): Why yes, your Kroot can buy lunch, and for reasonably cheap thanks to the Dataslate. This gives them a single-use item to heal d3+1 wounds.
• Piercing Shot (2 EP): Upgrades a Kroot Pistol, Dual Kroot Pistols (where it will be stuck on the limited range of the Pistol) or Kroot Rifle with a single shot that does 3/4 damage and AP1 in case you really want a killing blow against an armored opponent like a space marine.
• Quill Grenade (2 EP): Pretty much a frag grenade.
• 0-1 Ritual Blade: Kroot Kill-Broker only. Upgrades their knife to do 4/5 damage if you intend to have them more up-close.
• Toxin Shot (2 EP): Upgrades a Kroot Pistol, Dual Kroot Pistols (where it will be stuck on the limited range of the Pistol) or Kroot Rifle with a single shot that does a flimsy 2/2 damage but Lethal 5+ and Stun allow you to steal an AP so the enemy can't grab that key objective.
• Trophy (3 EP): Gives a once per game use that adds an additional AP for the bearer, but you can only use one each turn if you buy multiples.

FK Units

This Seek & Destroy/Recon fireteam is composed of:

• 1 Kroot Kill-Broker
• 11 of the following:
  • 0-11 Kroot Warriors
  • 0-1 Kroot Bow-Hunter
  • 0-1 Kroot Cold-Blood
  • 0-1 Kroot Cut-Skin
  • 0-1 Kroot Heavy Gunner
  • 0-2 Kroot Hounds
  • 0-1 Kroot Long-Sight
  • 0-1 Kroot Pistolier
  • 0-1 Kroot Stalker
  • 0-1 Kroot Tracker

• Kroot Kill-Broker (Combat, Marksman, Scout): While the Kill-Broker has the expected 2+ WS on their knife, their BS is actually only decent with all their guns. Alongside Rogue, they also get a photon grenade if they choose the Carbine and the ability to mark out one enemy operative each turn - anyone who attacks this operative scores an instant hit.
  • Your gun options all exchange between accuracy and effectiveness. Your base Kroot Rifle is your most accurate at 3+ BS but is only as strong as a bolter at 3/4 damage. The Pulse Carbine degrades at 4+ BS but its damage is only 4 damage in exchange for the photon grenade, making it a difficult choice even when compared to the Pulse Rifle's 4/5 damage.

• Kroot Warrior (Combat, Marksman, Scout): The average warrior is surprisingly tanky at 8 wounds but needs that cover and Rogue's benefits with only a 5+ save protecting them. Each warrior has an option between either the bolter-tier Kroot Rifle or the Kroot Scattergun, which trades off crits and infinite range for a 3+ BS. Its blade isn't anything shabby either, as it hits as hard as the rifle and has 3+ WS for accuracy.

• Kroot Bow-Hunter (Marksman): A sniper-like operative that trades in the high damage with versatility in its arrows. That Accelerator Bow comes with three different arrows you can shoot each turn: the high damage AP1 fused arrows, the decently powerful and Silent glide-arrows and the low-damage but Splash 2 voltaic arrows. If you're looking to cash in on more crits, you can spend an action before shooting so the bow can add Lethal 5+ to any arrows it shoots.

• Kroot Cold-Blood (Staunch, Marksman): An angry chicken with a prosthetic leg and a free use of the Piercing Shot and Toxin Shot. He's also pretty tanky at 9 wounds with the ability to degrage the damage of any incoming critical damage to only deal regular damage, though things like Stun and MW will still hurt hard.

• Kroot Cut-Skin (Combat): The melee monster of the Kroot, as their knives get decent damage with Balanced and Lethal 5+. On top of that, they deal 1 MW as chip damage for each hit the enemy parries, all but guaranteeing the death of anyone they fight. On top of that, they have a special action that lets them fight twice if the enemy doesn't die the first time, which is absurdly powerful when facing high-wound enemies. The Q4 2022 Dataslate gave them a defensive edge by making them immune to the No Cover rule, allowing them to weave past a good few annoying tricks.

• Kroot Heavy Gunner (Marksman): This guy won't be going anywhere, as both his gun options have Cumbersome, limiting how far he can go before being unable to shoot. Make preparations to hide behind any cover you find.
  • The Dvorgite Skinner is essentially your heavy flamer, offsetting its poor damage and limited range by having AP2 and Torrent so it can spread its abuse far and wide without worrying about saves. The Londaxi Tribalest is more for marksmanship, having decent damage with AP1. It also has Rending, which...is very odd to consider since the Tribalest only deals 4/4 damage.

• Kroot Hound (Combat, Scout): Zippy beasts, but it would be a bad idea to consider dedicating them to being anything beyond harassers. While they can pick up objectives through a special action that also lets them move or dash when doing so, they cannot perform any other objective actions and are unable to take any equipment. Fortunately, their fangs are pretty strong with Rending for more crits and have GA2 to let a second hound follow-up to kill the enemy.

• Kroot Long-Sight (Marksman, Scout): The dedicated sniper, this rifle lacks Silent but it does decent damage and MW3 on a crit. If you want something more, you can spend an action to either provide the rifle the more-expected Silent and Lethal 5+ or make it ignore obscuration. This gives the Long-Sight a decent work-around against any cover-spammers that you might come across while also being able to be stealthy like normal snipers.

• Kroot Pistolier (Marksman, Scout): A birdman that knows how to be a gunslinger. The dual pistols might be short ranged, but they have good damage and Balanced with Lethal 5+ makes them more than effective for its job. Not only can this guy spend an action to shoot twice to pin the enemy down, but he can also fire back at an opponent who shoots at him once per turn, making him a bit of a defensive marksman.

• Kroot Stalker (Combat, Scout): More the harasser than the murderer like the Cut-Skin, the Stalker's more able to get things done while hidden. Their loadout sees them better suited to melee, as their Kroot Scattergun does decent damage but has limited range while the Stalker's Blade has Balanced and Rending for extra effectiveness. Their worth hinges around hiding, as they can charge while under the Conceal order. They can also spend 2 AP on a special ability they can use while under the Conceal order and right next to some terrain, letting them immediately charge and fight an unsuspecting foe, letting them auto-confirm a second hit if they score one.
  • Of course, he needs to hide to be effective. As he lacks a rifle of any sort, he's exposed against any enemy marksmen.

• Kroot Tracker (Marksman, Scout): This particular Kroot comes with their own pet bird, a Pech'ra that can move alongside its owner. This bird thankfully isn't its own unit, but still provides the tracker with a special action. This lets the Tracker mark an enemy within 6"/pentagon of the bird, letting enemies within 6"/pentagon that shoot at this target ignore light cover. On top of that, this operative can also lend out extra AP to nearby allies, so it's all in for support.

FK Ploy

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• Cut-Throats (1 CP): All operatives gain +1 attack to melee weapons to a max of 5 total attacks. Decent for backing up any shooty Kroot, but won't mean much for the rest.
• Bound (1 CP): For the Turing point, all operatives ignore one circle for climb/drop/traverse and automatically pass any jump checks. Decent for any vertical boards or any obstacle-ridden boards, otherwise it's not worth it.
• Farstalk (1 CP): Thee operatives over square/3" of any enemies can immediately change their order.
• Prey (1 CP): When your operatives are activated, you can modify their guns to gain the Balanced and Heavy rules. The Long-Sight see this as an instant win as their gun already has Heavy, while Heavy Gunners might be a bit skeptical depending on where they are.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• Mercenary Contract (1 CP): Allows you to replace a Tac Op with one that's outside of your Kill-Team's archetype.
• Poach (1 CP): One operative can perform any mission actions while within range of it rather than being right on top of it, and can do so even while engaged.
• Slip Away (1 CP): One operative can fall back on a 1 AP discount. Great for any marksmen in the team.
• Vengeance for the Kinband (1 CP): When one operative dies, the rest will hold a grudge. Anyone that attacks this operative's killer can re-roll all hits.
  • This sounds awesome, but it can only be active for one instance only until the marked foe dies. Once he's bird-chow, then you can trigger it again.

</tab> </tabs>

FK Strategies

Basic Strategy

Play the objective, due to your crap armor and low chance to actually hurt anyone with your guns, playing the objective and choosing your Tac Ops wisely is the way to win as Kroot, they are definitely the high skill floor faction for this game, keep your sniper annoying and poking the enemies so they are forced to take him out, while your houhds and Krootox draw fire away.

Skinning Knife Spam

You can always just fit as much skinning knives as you can, concealing your carnivores until its the right time to strike, with good rolls you can gimp a Grey Knight pretty bad in one combat round.

Counterplay

Get the objectives before they do and laugh your ass off while you out damage them.

Hive Fleet

Why Play Hive Fleet

• Pros
  • Genestealers are incredibly mobile and sneaky, even moreso than any other scouts or sneaky units short of Tau stealth suits.
  • Warriors provide Synapse as well as durable bodies that can switch between melee or shooting with little hassle.
  • Gaunts are numerous and have GA2 to swarm around the opposition.

• Cons
  • Gaunts remain exceedingly fragile and very specialized. Not to mention that you can only bring one fireteam of them.
  • Synapse makes your warriors into very visible targets. It also means that your team will likely huddle up to each other as the wounds rack up.
  • 4+ BS on your big guns makes shooting less than desirable...unless you pick the short-range stuff.
  • No Lictors, bummer.

Special Rules

• Synapse: Any operatives activated within 6"/pentagon of an operative with the Synapse keyword do not suffer the movement or WS/BS penalties that being injured inflicts. This makes your warriors into strongpoints for your army.

HF Wargear

• Flesh Hooks (2 EP): Provides a short-ranged gun with 3"/square range and the power of a bolter but Lethal 5+ for extra cits.
• Acid Maw (2 EP): A rather short-ranged gun with 6"/pentagon range and Splash 1 for lucky crits to spread around.
• Extended Chitin (2/3 EP): The bearer can re-roll one defense die. Costs 3 EP for a Tyranid Warrior operative.
• Feeder Tendrils (2 EP): The bearer regains d3 wounds each time it kills a foe.
• Toxin Sacs (2 EP): Whenever the bearer scores a crit in combat, they can convert a miss into another hit.
• Adrenal Glands (2 EP): The operative adds +1"/triangle to their movement for the game. This is especially vital to hormagaunts, who are the most prone to getting squished and thus need to close the distance to get a hit off before dying.

HF Units

The kill team is composed of three Fire teams <tabs> <tab name="Tyranid Warrior Fireteam">

The fireteam is composed of 3 of the following:

• 0-1 Tyranid Warrior Leader (if you don't have another leader)
• 1-3 Tyranid Warrior Fighter
• 0-1 Tyranid Warrior Heavy Gunner

• Tyranid Warrior Leader (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): The leader remains as elite as the warriors it commands, with a 2+ WS and 3+ BS on the long-range guns making it a capable shot. That BS can also make it very tempting to grab two sets of melee weapons for maximizing those attacks.
• Tyranid Warrior Fighter (Staunch, Marksman):Your classic warrior is an absolute monster, capable of filling out whatever role you need of it and tanky as hell with a 4+ save and 18 whole wounds.
  • Melee weapons are plenty and diverse, and if you pick two melee weapons (say scything talons and bonesword+whip or two sets of rending claws) you add +1 attack to both weapons. Rending claws are plenty deadly with Rending maximizing crits, while scything talons offer Balanced for reliability and boneswords give Lethal 5+ to make crits more likely. Taking a bonesword and lash whip gives a bonesword with one less attack than when paired up, but the whip gives a short-ranged shooting attack with Stun and can even rob the enemy of attacks when in combat with the enemy.
  • One set of arms can be provided a gun instead of melee weapons. Spinefists provide short-range firepower equal to a bolt pistol. A devourer provides that same power with Ceaseless but suffers at a 4+ BS. The deathspitter also uses the 4+ BS, but provides more potent firepower.
• Tyranid Warrior Heavy Gunner (Staunch, Marksman): As with the fighter, this warrior has one set of arms dedicated to melee weaponry. However, the second set of arms is stuck to some sort of heavy gun, limiting its mobility. The barbed strangler has Blast to flush out crowds of enemies while the venom cannon has high damage with AP1 in order to rip through armor.

</tab> <tab name="Genestealer Fireteam"> The fireteam is composed of 5 of the following:

• 0-1 Genestealer Leader (if you don't have another leader)
• 4-5 Genestealer Fighters

• Genestealer Fighter (Combat, Scout): Your elite genestealer, given a bonus wound and a 2+ WS for extra ripping.
• Genestealer Leader (Combat, Scout): Genestealers are extremely mobile, being able to dash as soon as they're activated. Not only that, but they're also quite sneaky, getting a 5+ Invuln save and the ability to stay Concealed regardless of any circumstances. This means that a genestealer can very easily sneak up to an opponent and ambush them.
  • You have only two weapon selections. Rending claws + scything talons gives you 10 attacks, half with Rending and the other half with Balanced for good damage. If you pair up rending claws, this reduces you to only 5 attacks, but these attacks get Relentless and Rending for maximum crit-fishing.

</tab> <tab name="Tyranid Swarm Fireteam (Max 1)">

The fireteam is composed of 8 of the following (max 1 per kill team):

• 0-8 Hormagaunt
• 0-8 Termagant (Any Termagant with a devourer counts as two selections)

• Hormagaunt (Staunch, Marksman): Your choppy nid. It's plenty weak with only 7 wounds and a 6+ save. Its scything talons are its only claim to fame, though Relentless makes sure you actually hit things. With GA2 on your gaunts, you can make sure that all of them can either circle around enemies or reach cover sooner than the enemy can fire upon them. For the hormagaunt, it's your only way to guarantee that you can ever close the distance and get to killing.
• Termagant (Staunch, Marksman): Your piddly gunner-nid, only given 7 wounds and a 6+ save. You're going to need this thing to hide in order to make use of its gun. The spinefists provide piddly damage equal to your bites while the deathspitter is only slightly better at a 4+ BS. The devourer is the only full-ranged gun and Ceaseless lets you guarantee hits, but it forces you to sacrifice one gaunt for it.

</tab> </tabs>

HF Ploys

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• Stalk (1 CP): An operative with the Conceal order and is more than 3"/square from an enemy can immediately move. Especially useful for your genestealers, who are super good at hiding.
• Lurk (1 CP): If an operative is shot at while in cover and is either using the Conceal order or is readied, they can retain one additional die as a result of cover. Expect to use this a good bit if you use gaunts because they cannot last out in the open, as will genestealers.
• Feed (1 CP): When an operative scores a crit in combat, that hit scores +1 additional damage.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• Unseen Hunter (1 CP): The operative can switch its order before or after its activation so long as it doesn't shoot. Practically begging for hormagaunts and genestealers to use it, but termagants trying to reach optimal firing range might also need this too.
• Will of the Hive Mind (1 CP): Triggered when an operative is activated within 6"/pentagon of an operative with the Synapse keyword, providing +1 to the operative's APL. Useful for letting genestealers hit and run or letting gaunts or warriors run faster.
• Aggressive Biostrain (1 CP): If an operative shoots but doesn't hit the enemy, they can shoot that target again.

</tab> </tabs>

HF Strategies

HF Strategies:

Functionally you have 3 loadouts for this kill team:

• 3 Warriors + 4-8 Swarmagaunts: Gaunts screen your warriors and go forward when its risky. You do not want to risk your warriors as they're going to be doing the real work while the small bugs jam-up hostile operatives etc.

• 3 Warriors + 5 Genestealers: Genestealers need less babysitting and can do flanking shenanigans or operate alone against isolated guardsmen equivalents. Warriors don't have to be geared for ranged as Genestealers really encourage a get-in close playstyle.

• 6 Warriors: Very flexible, can skew towards a nasty melee setup, or to a balanced configuration that has average range threat with decent melee threat. Probably the tankiest setup, with its high wound count, 4+ armour saves, and never suffering from Injury or negative WS/BS modifiers, it means other players are going to feel like they're pounding on a brick wall.

Don't even think about going all genestealer or genestealer+swarm, its too squishy and struggles to do basic shit without factoring in casualties.

Warrior loadouts This is probably the meat and potatoes of discussing HF Killteams; how do you gear up these bad boys. The obvious starting point is to ask "What role?": Dedicated Melee or Combined Arms is how most people think, but the truth is that there is more nuance. In an all warriors team its useful to think of each warrior as a serving a purpose, like a lashwhip+bonesword warrior supporting another warrior built as a blender when facing a horde team. The heavy gunner warriors can be mix-n-matched, either 1 of each heavy weapon or double-up based on whether its hordes or elites.

Counterplay:

Kill the Tyranid Warriors first, these are the pieces that do a lot of the work for Hive Fleet. If your opponent isn't fielding any then its pretty much open season, melee the shooty bugs, shoot the melee bugs. Gaunts and Genestealers have pretty bad saves, so the kill team as a whole will crumble quickly when forced into a bad engage.

An important point is to focus down Tyranid Warriors one at a time, they can't get injured, you're only going to impact the killteam's performance by wholly removing Warrior activations. Secondly is have something that can flush genestealers out of Conceal, their actual defense is poor and they lean hard on stealth to survive.

HF Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

Brood Coven

Why Play Brood Coven

• Pros
  • Your melee weapons are some incredibly dangerous and ubiquitous fare for Kill Team
  • Some good ways to sneak around the enemy while using the Conceal order.
• Cons
  • Your units remain as flimsy as guardsmen.
  • No Aberrants or Genestealers for you in this edition for some strange reason, robbing you of some of GSC's hardest hitting melee units.

BC Wargear

• Blasting Charge (2 EP): Essentially a much weaker frag grenade.
• Demolition Charge (4 EP): A hybrid of a frag and krak grenade, combining Blast of a frag with the high damage and AP1 of the krak grenade. However, it has Unwieldy, making it a poor choice for overwatch...if you ever wanted to use it there anyways.
• Heavy Weapon Bipod Censer (3 EP): Neophyte Hybrid Heavy Gunner operative only. This allows the bearer to re-roll one hit die if they did not move on their activation. Sadly, they remain hampered by Heavy.
• Flash Visor (1 EP): This operative can ignore any APL modifiers.
• Mining Tool Rig (2 EP): Acolyte Hybrid Fighter only. This adds relentless to their selected heavy weapon, making it considerably more dangerous as those hits are now guaranteed.
• 0-1 Structural Surveyor (3 EP): Provides the bearer a special action for 1 AP. You can mark one piece of terrain within 6"/pentagon from them and a friendly operative within 3"/square of them. This operative no longer counts the terrain as an obstruction and forces any targets to roll for all their saves rather than auto-making a save.

BC Units

The kill team is composed of two Fire teams

<tabs> <tab name="Neophyte Hybrid Fire team">

The fireteam is composed of 7 of the following:

• 0-1 Neophyte Hybrid Leader (if you don't have another leader)
• 1-7 Neophyte Hybrid Troopers
• 0-2 Neophyte Hybrid Gunner
• 0-1 Neophyte Hybrid Heavy Gunner
• 0-1 Neophyte Hybrid Icon Bearer

• Neophyte Hybrid Leader (Combat, Marksman, Scout): While this guy can stay as a basic Trooper+1 with a shotgun or autogun, he has plenty of options for melee, making him a good bit more dangerous.
  • The melee options are pretty stark in their value. The chainsword offers practically nothing compared to the power maul's Stun or the power pick's Rending, especially when the chainsword's damage pales in comparison to the other two. The autopistol is pretty much a short-ranged autogun, while the bolt pistol is only a step above in terms of damage. The web pistol does worse damage-wise, but it offers Stun to rob nearby enemies of AP.
• Neophyte Hybrid Trooper (Marksman, Scout): Your basic neophyte isn't far removed from the basic guardsman, even possessing GA2 to let them move more quickly than most forces. Your only weapon choices are the autogun for a lasgun-alike and the short-ranged shotgun with consistent damage regardless of whether or not it crits.
• Neophyte Hybrid Gunner (Marksman, Scout): Your neophyte has three rather different options for whatever situation you need. The flamer is short-ranged but provides coverage with Torrent to spread the flames. The webber is also short-ranged but it has Stun to rob the enemy of AP and Lethal 5+ to maximize how often you trigger it. The grenade launcher is your only infinite-range option and has plenty of versatility, with frag grenades covering crowds with Blast while the krak grenades deal high AP1 damage.
• Neophyte Hybrid Heavy Gunner (Staunch, Marksman): The only source for heavy weapons to the entire kill-team, and to this end you provide plenty of fire, though Heavy keeps this guy rooted to where he is. The heavy stubber provides Ceaseless and Fusillade, offering a literal wall of fire to cover enemies. The mining laser offers high damage with AP1 and no other frills. The seismic cannon comes with two modes: low-frequency has infinite range and Blast to spread the Stun chances, but has low damage. The high-frequency has short range, but hits at a better BS and has P1 to make crits a bigger deal.
• Neophyte Hybrid Icon Bearer (Staunch): A trooper carrying an icon, meaning they get the APL boosts to capping points as well as a gun. For 1 AP they can plant the Cult Icon, inspiring fellow operatives within square/3" to re-roll one hit die when fighting or shooting.

</tab> <tab name="Acolyte Hybrid Fireteam"> The fireteam is composed of 5 of the following:

• 0-1 Acolyte Hybrid Leader (if you don't have another leader)
• 1-5 Acolyte Hybrid Troopers
• 0-2 Acolyte Hybrid Gunner and/or Fighter
• 0-1 Acolyte Hybrid Icon Bearer

• Acolyte Hybrid Leader (Combat, Scout): Sports some really odd weapons choices. For shooting, you could get an autopistol or hand flamer, but you could also get a lash-whip, dealing -1 Attack to enemies engaged with them in exchange for a very short range. Melee gives you either the blade+claw for Balanced and Rending for deadlier crits or the bonesword+claw for Balanced and Deadly 5+ for more crits.
• Acolyte Hybrid Trooper (Combat, Scout): Now we're starting to get a little freaky with the mutations, resulting in a standard 8 wounds. While this guy gets a basic autopistol for shooting, their weapons make up for that with Balanced for one re-roll to hit and Rending to make crits really leave a mark.
• Acolyte Hybrid Gunner (Combat, Marksman, Scout): Despite being called a gunner, they only really have one choice of gun: a hand flamer. This provides plenty of coverage with Torrent, but the short range of this spread will limit its value, as will the pistol's short range.
• Acolyte Hybrid Fighter (Combat, Scout): The most dangerous of the lot, carrying some real nasty things. The heavy rock drill deals the least damage on a base hit, but Brutal makes any hits overpower enemy defenses. The heavy rock saw does more pain without any frills. The heavy rock cutter deals the most damage out of all the options and has Lethal 5+ to emphasize its damage, but it forces the hybrid to use a 4+ WS to work with.
• Acolyte Hybrid Icon Bearer (Stanch): A trooper carrying an icon, meaning they get the APL boosts to capping points as well as a decent melee weapon. For 1 AP they can plant the Cult Icon, inspiring fellow operatives within square/3" to re-roll one hit die when fighting or shooting. This means more for this lot since your basic melee weapon has Balanced so you have two re-rolls now.

</tab> <tab name="Hybrid Metamorph Fireteam">

The fireteam is composed of 5 of the following:

• 0-1 Hybrid Metamorph Leader (if you don't have another leader)
• 1-5 Hybrid Metamorph Fighters
• 0-2 Hybrid Metamorph Gunners
• 0-1 Hybrid Metamorph Icon Bearer

• Hybrid Metamorph Leader (Combat, Scout): Another melee master of a leader. While their guns remain either the meager autopistol or the limited hand flamer, your melee implements excel. The basic metamorph mutations are for brute-forcing your way to victory while the bonesword+mutatiosn replaces Brutal with Lethal 5+, letting you guarantee crits at the cost of the letting the enemy more easily parry them.
• Hybrid Metamorph Fighter (Combat, Scout ): As durable as an acolyte hybrid, but your melee weapons are far deadlier. Not only do they Balanced for a re-roll and Rending for maximizing crit damage, they also get Brutal to literally break through parrying.
• Hybrid Metamorph Gunner (Combat, Marksman, Scout): Despite being called a gunner, they only really have one choice of gun: a hand flamer. This provides plenty of coverage with Torrent, but the short range of this spread will limit its value, as will the pistol's short range.
• Hybrid Metamorph Icon Bearer (Staunch): A fighter carrying an icon, meaning they get the APL boosts to capping points as well as a decent melee weapon. For 1 AP they can plant the Cult Icon, inspiring fellow operatives within square/3" to re-roll one hit die when fighting or shooting. This means more for this lot since your basic melee weapon has Balanced so you have two re-rolls now and Brutal means that you really want those hits to make it.

</tab> </tabs>

BC Ploys

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• Cult Ambush (1 CP): Use during the first turning point. Your operatives can switch their orders during their activation. This is about as sneaky as you get, and is especially handy for your acolytes and metamorphs with their melee skills.
• Lurk in the Shadows (1 CP): Whenever the enemy shoots upon an operative in cover and either has the Conceal order or is readied, they can either take one extra save as a result of cover or make a successful save into a critical save. Considering the weak saves of your genestealers, you'll probably be needing that extra save.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• Underground (1 CP): One operative can deployed anywhere within 1"/triangle of some heavy cover and more than 6"/pentagon of any enemy operatives or their DZ at the game's start.
• Into the Shadows (1 CP): After one operative activates, you can immediately swap their order to the Conceal order.
• Crossfire (1 CP): After one operative shoots at an enemy, another operative who shoots that same enemy can re-roll one hit die. It's not much, but this can give you something for your neophytes.
• Lying in Wait (1 CP): When activating an operative with the Conceal order and over 3"/square of an operative, you can activate another operative within 3"/square of them and satisfying those same conditions immediately afterwards. This is some incredibly good sneaky stuff, letting you treat more units as if they're GA2 and making more use of the Conceal order.

</tab> </tabs>

BC Strategies

BC Strategies:

Strategies for playing as this faction go here

Counterplay:

Strategies for playing against this faction go here

BC Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

Wyrmblade (WD 472)

Why Play Wyrmblade

• Pros
  • Retain the broad selection of firearms given to the Neophyte Genestealers
  • Make use of a bunch of Characters outside of HQ, something only a few other armies can even consider using
  • Can easily swap between Conceal and Engage orders, which only the Kroot can brag about
• Cons
  • You remain pretty much guardsmen. You'll need to hide your men
  • Your characters and leader are pretty much your only melee operatives
  • Wyrmblade is an alternative to Brood Coven rather than a straight upgrade. It has its strengths, but for some things (like melee) you'd probably be better off sticking with the Compendium.

WB Wargear

While you choose your wargear, you should remember that CULT AGENTS (i.e. all the special characters) can't have any of them

• Cult Knife (2 EP): An A4 WS4+ D2/3 melee weapon. Honestly, none of your troops really get anything good from this.
• Climbing Equipment (3 EP): This makes an operative climb up and down scalable terrain without a lot of hassle. You can drop down any height, climbing comes at a drastic movement discount.
• Cult Talisman (2 EP): Once per game, you can make one save into a critical save. Best saved to avoid some sinister crit or power fist to the noggin.
• Frag Grenade (2 EP): The timeless classic, made to wipe out groups of enemies.
• Blasting Charge (3 EP): A +1 damage Frag Grenade, but with a small blast. Probably worth the increased cost, unless you absolutely need that 1 point.
• Flash Visor (1 EP): This operative can ignore any APL modifiers.
• Spotlight (3 EP): Enemy operatives within 6"/pentagon of the bearer can never be obscured, leaving them as sitting ducks for any marksmen.

WB Campaign Additions

<tabs> <tab name="Tac Ops">

• Nowhere Unreachable: Revealed during the first turn, allowing your opponent to drop one objective at least 6"/pentagon from their DZ. You score 1 VP for each turn where you control that one objective.
• Perfect Ambush: Revealed on any turn before the fourth. Keep a tally of how many wounds each of your operatives gives and receives; you score 1 VP for each turn where you deal more wounds overall than the enemy. You can an additional VP for every turn where your Cult Agent operatives dealt more wounds than the total number of wounds dealt to your side, which is a pretty sizeable order.
• Mark for Assassination: Your Neophyte operatives gain a new action that lets them mark a visible enemy operative that has GA1 within 3"/square of them, which...doesn't do anything on its own. However, you gain 1 VP for each marked enemy you murder, letting you focus-fire on key players.

</tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Wyrmblade Assassination"> Note - This counts as the Elimination Spec Op for terms of repeating

1. Insidious Invasion: Finish five games where you scored VP from the Interloper, Capture Hostage & Infiltrate and Behind Enemy Lines Tac Ops. A lot of this requires footwork and making sure the enemy is distracted enough for you to finish your job.
2. Eliminate Oppressor: Finish one last game where you win VP through the Mark for Assassination Tac Op.

Completing this Spec Op scores 1 RP and the operative that accomplished the final objective gets 5 XP. In addition, you get the option to either grab a piece of rare equipment or increase your asset cap by +1. </tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Clandestine Warfare"> Note - This counts as the Purge Order Spec Op for terms of repeating

1. Shadow Engagements: Finish five games where you scored VP from any of your faction-exclusive Tac Ops.
2. Return to Cult: Finish one last game where you have at least one operative within the enemy's DZ and over 2"/square from any enemies by the game's end. This isn't an actual Tac Op, so you can decide how you want to accomplish it.

Completing this Spec Op gives you 5 XP you can spread across all of your operatives while all of your operatives can auto-pass any casualty and recovery checks. In Addition, you get the option to either grab a piece of rare equipment or increase your asset cap by +1. </tab> <tab name="Battle Honors">

1. Scurry: While this operative has the Conceal order, they gain +1"/triangle to their movement, a little boost to their speed as they run to their next goal.
2. Elusive: When this operative is activated while engaged with a single enemy, they have the ability to fall back for free on a 4+.
   • As a kill-team with more bodies, you'll probably be using this against enemies like space marines who can crush a single cultist on their own.
3. Mercurial: When an enemy from beyond 6"/pentagon shoots at this operative, they can re-roll a save die.
4. Prowler: This operative only needs to be within range of an objective for the sake of performing mission actions rather than actively controlling it. This can allow you to swipe out items from under the enemy's nose.
5. Stalker: This operative can use the Slink into Darkness ploy twice per game rather than once.
6. Clandestine: Whenever this operative is both using the Conceal order and hidden behind light cover, they cannot be targeted by anyone with a vantage point, offering extra protection from enemy snipers.

</tab> <tab name="Requisition">

• Honoured by the Cult (2 RP): Lets you hire a Cult Agent operative with enough XP to reach the current tier as your leader. Of course you want this in a longer game, you're getting all the battle honours for 1 extra point of requisition! If the game didn't run as long, you might want to wait until you get to another tier.
• Proficient Planning (1 RP): Used once when undergoing a Spec Op. You gain a number of Proficient Planning points equal to the number of ranks for your leader. During any games while still in that Spec Op, you can spend one point for some extra CP. This can only be done once per game and will only last until you either use up your points or you finish the Spec Op, letting your remaining points go to waste.
• Spiritual Aid (1 RP): Used when an operative suffers a battle scar. The operative isn't limited to only earning 3 XP from injury and counts as having one less battle scar when rolling for your new one. In addition, Cerebral Affliction is ignored, giving you one less thing to worry about.

</tab> <tab name="Assets">

• Alchemical Cryo-Dispensary: You can re-roll one casualty test or recovery test each game. Helpful in keeping everyone in fighting shape since you lack a dedicated medic.
• Insurgent Dead Drop: During your Scouting Phase, you can pick two different actions, though initiative will only be determined by your first choice.
• Wyrmbore Network: When the game starts, you can use the Hiding ploy once for free and set up two operatives with it.

</tab> <tab name="Rare Equipment">

1. Splinterwyrm Knife (2 EP): A new melee weapon with A4 WS3+ D3/5 and Rending. A pretty nice tool to give an operative that'll likely need the melee edge.
2. Gene-Brew (2 EP): Grants +2 wounds and lets them ignore the Heavy trait, giving it a bit of extra use for a heavy gunner.
3. Ichor-Infused Ammunition (1/2 EP): One autogun, shotgun or heavy stubber gains Lethal 5+ for a lucky crit. Costs 2 EP for a heavy stubber.
4. Shadowleap Cloak (2 EP): Your operative now has Fly, meaning that they can run over any amount of terrain. Enjoy the three-armed acrobatics!
5. Sire-Blessed Icon (3 EP): Neophyte Icon Bearer only. The bearer gains +1 to saves and gives you an extra CP.
6. Neural Shroud (3 EP): The bearer counts as always being behind cover when over 6"/pentagon away from any enemies. That protection will be very helpful considering how much you'll be shot up.

</tab> </tabs>

WB Special Rules

• Cult Ambush: A vast difference compared to the classic version. Here, this lets your activated operatives switch orders from Conceal to Engage on your first turn and re-roll attack dice results of one number (i.e. you 'could' re-roll 1s to hit, but you could also re-roll 2s if that's what you have more of).
• Preternatural Assassin: What makes the Cult Agent operatives the super-badasses. They get a 4++ save but can't take wargear. In addition, they can either take an additional save from cover, or turn a save from cover into a critical save to foil crits.

WB Units

The fireteam is composed of 13 of the following:

• 1 Neophyte Hybrid Leader
• 12 of the following:
  • 1-12 Neophyte Brood-Adept
  • 0-2 Neophyte Gunner
  • 0-2 Neophyte Heavy Gunner
  • 0-1 Neophyte Icon Bearer
  • You can only have up to two of the following Cult Agent operatives, but each counts as two selections:
    • 0-1 Kelermorph
    • 0-1 Locus
    • 0-1 Sanctus Sniper
    • 0-1 Sanctus Talon

• Neophyte Leader (Combat, Marksman, Scout): While this guy can stay as a basic Trooper+1 with a shotgun or autogun, he has plenty of options for melee, making him a good bit more dangerous. This version of the leader is a bit better because he allows visible Neophyte operatives to trigger either the Slink into Darkness or Coiled Serpent ploys for free, helping you to spring all manner of assaults.
  • The melee options are pretty stark in their value. The chainsword, power pick, and power maul are all surprisingly good choices with differing rules, with the chainsword giving Ceaseless for re-rolls while the pick has Rending and maul has Stun. The autopistol is a bit better than a short-ranged autogun with Balanced and Lethal 5+, while the bolt pistol is only a step above in terms of damage. The web pistol does worse damage-wise, but it offers Stun to rob nearby enemies of AP.
• Kelermorph (Marksman, Scout): The three-armed slinger comes to the fray, well defended by Preternatural Assassin as well as a 4+ save and 9 wounds. Your liberator autostubs are pretty much bolter-strength with P1 and Rending that you can shoot twice, though you have to choose between infinite range at a meh 4+ BS or a short-range with an excellent 2+ BS. In addition, you get an extra action that lets you changes the short-range profile of the autostubs henever you fire next, sacrificing P1 and Rending but gaining Indirect and No Cover. Whenever you kill someone, the kelermorph becomes an inspiration for nearby friendly Neophyte operatives, letting them score critical hits on a 5+ as they try to emulate their hero.
  • While the guns are the stars of the show, don't forget that your kelermorph has a knife to defend himself in melee. While not as outstanding, it remains a potent weapon that can take down guardsmen in short order.
• Locus (Combat): Your elite blender, made primarily to close the distance for instant murder. Not only do they come a vicious sword with Lethal 5+, but their tail also acts as a very short-ranged sniper shot with Silent. As the masters of combat, they can fight twice in an activation, and each time they must always make one hit into a successful parry before the opponent can react. You also get a special action that lets them instantly charge anyone that moves next to them, and this can be done even when using the Conceal Order.
• Neophyte Brood-Adept (Marksman, Scout): Your basic neophyte isn't far removed from the basic guardsman, even possessing GA2 to let them move more quickly than most forces. Your only weapon choices are the autogun for a lasgun-alike and the short-ranged shotgun with a better BS and consistent damage regardless of whether or not it crits.
• Neophyte Gunner (Marksman, Scout): Your neophyte has three rather different options for whatever situation you need. The flamer is short-ranged but provides coverage with Torrent to spread the flames. The webber is also short-ranged but it has Stun to rob the enemy of AP and Lethal 5+ to maximize how often you trigger it. The grenade launcher is your only infinite-range option and has plenty of versatility, with frag grenades covering crowds with Blast while the krak grenades deal high AP1 damage.
• Neophyte Heavy Gunner (Staunch, Marksman): The only source for heavy weapons to the entire kill-team, and to this end you provide plenty of fire, though Heavy keeps this guy rooted to where he is. The heavy stubber provides Ceaseless and Fusillade, offering a literal wall of fire to cover enemies. The mining laser offers high damage with AP1 and no other frills. The seismic cannon comes with two modes: low-frequency has infinite range and Blast to spread the Stun chances, but low damage. The high-frequency has short range, but hits at a better BS and has P1 to make crits a bigger deal on top of Stun.
• Neophyte Icon Bearer (Staunch): A trooper carrying an icon, meaning they get the APL boosts to capping points as well as a gun. Rather than planting the icon like others in their place, this icon bearer can let nearby operatives using Cult Ambush for re-rolls to re-roll any hit dice, making for a massive step up. However, this means that their usefulness tapers off after the first turn.
• Sanctus Sniper (Marksman): The long-ranged assassin version of the Sanctus. Their sniper is a pretty simple one, with Silent and MW3 to make it way stronger on crits. On top of that, you've got special actions to improve that rifle. One just makes it Lethal 5+ to more easily trigger those MWs, while the other lets the Sanctus see through cover, Obscured foes, and even smoke grenades. So long as they can focus on shooting down targets, they'll be the most dangerous guns you'll see.
• Sanctus Talon (Combat, Scout): The stabby Sanctus, given only a bio-dagger with a pretty mighty crit with Lethal 4+ and Stun as well as dealing enough damage to almost immediately kill enemy guardsmen. Using its unique action adds on Brutal and Balanced on the dagger, making those hits practically guaranteed.
  • To compensate its lack of a gun, this Sanctus becomes way more mobile. They can charge despite using the Conceal action and can always Dash away after fighting, letting them be a consistent hit-and-run menace.

WB Ploys

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• Crossfire (1 CP): The big gift from 9E. If an operative shoots an enemy but doesn't kill them, the enemy gets a Crossfire token. Any other operatives that try to shoot this enemy on the same turn can immediately score one hit without rolling. Want to soften up an enemy before firing the heavy gunner at them? Need to expose a priority target for your Sanctus Sniper? Time to crack this ploy open.
• Meticulous Plan (1 CP): Any time your Neophyte operatives are activated with the Conceal order, they take a 1 AP discount on any objective actions, including Pick Up. If it sounds too good to be true, then the rub is that it can only be used once. Make that use count.
• One with the Shadows (1 CP): When an enemy tries to target any of your operatives while using the Conceal order, any light terrain will count as Obscuring. You'll definitely be making use of this to keep your troops alive because they'll otherwise be folding pretty quick.
• Writhing Ingress (1 CP): Place a marker within 1"/triangle of a piece of terrain 1"/triangle thick. Your operatives can now walk through this piece of terrain as long as they get about 1"/triangle of the marker, providing you a perfect escape route or shortcut to a prime ambush venue.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• Coiled Serpent (1 CP): When an operative switches from Conceal order or Engage order and attack, one hit can be turned into a crit. This will be the one your leader will be exploiting to save CP, as it allows for your guns to be more effective.
• Hiding (1 CP): When setting up operatives, you can hide up to two of your operatives in reserves. These hidden operatives become GA1 (sorry, no surprise couples of Brood-Adepts for you) and can be activated, letting them suddenly arrive anywhere within 6"/pentagon from your DZ and over 3"/square from any enemy operative. These operatives count as having moved and can now continue their turns as you wish. You can only use this once, and the operatives need to be deployed on the first turn or else be killed, which forces you to make sure that they get in position immediately.
• Slink Into Darkness (1 CP): One operative can switch from Engage order into Conceal order after activating. This is a single-use ploy, so you'll only be able to use this for one surprise ambush like a Sanctus Talon or Locus.
• Unquestioning Loyalty (1 CP): When a Cult Agent or Leader is charged by the enemy, one non-Leader Neophyte operative within 3"/square can immediately charge that enemy, throwing bodies of your (relatively) more disposable Brood-Adepts to your enemies while your important characters can fight another day.

</tab> </tabs>

WB Strategies

WB Strategies:

Strategies for playing as this faction go here

Counterplay:

Strategies for playing against this faction go here

WB Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams

Hearthkyn Salvagers (Gallowfall)

Why Play Hearthkyn Salvagers

• Pros
  • Can easily be made using a box of Hearthkyn Warriors
  • A lot of units can pick between either Autoch Bolters or Ion Blasters, giving the option of either re-rolls to hit or Crits breaching armor.
• Cons
  • Movement is limited.
  • While you have quite mighty melee weapons, there's not a lot of support for them outside of your designated heroes.

HS Wargear

• Auto Calibrator (1 EP): One of the bearer's guns ignores all BS modifiers.
• Climbing Equipment (1 EP): Pretty standard fare, but needed for vertical maps. Treats the first 6"/3 circles of movement as 2"/one circle and treats any drop distance as halved. On top of this, they can climb to any level.
• Gravitic Concussion Grenade (2 EP): The Votann Frag Grenade, capable of blasting crowds with a slightly stronger crits.
• 0-3 Excavation Tool (2 EP): When setting up barricades at the game's start, you can mark one pierce of Traversable terrain over 6"/pentagon of the enemy's DZ as terrain your operatives can walk through so longas they move through the marker for this terrain.
• Plasma Knife (1 EP): The same one given to the Field Medic. Gives your troops a melee weapon that's a step up from their mere fists.
• 0-1 Weavefield Crest (3 EP): Hearthkyn Theyn only. Any operatives within 3"/square of the Theyn get a 4++ save to better protect them from any form of AP.

HS Campaign Additions

<tabs> <tab name="Tac Ops">

• Excavate: Gain a special action that lets your operative place an Excavation token when controlling an objective over 6"/pentagon from your DZ, with an AP discount if you picked up an Excavation Kit. You score 1 VP for claiming the token at the end of the game and a second if you end the game while carrying it.
• Rig Site: Gain a special 2 AP action that lets two operatives within 1"/triangle of a Vantage Point (with one on top of it) terrain piece more than 6"/pentagon of your DZ score a VP. Score another VP if you pull this off with a total APL of your operatives within 1"/triangle of the rig site beats that of the enemy.
  • Considering that this requires two operatives to be unengaged to use properly, this is going to require a lot of setup and crowd control to avoid anything going wrong.
• Settle Grudges: Open a tally for every enemy you kill with a Grudge marker. You gain 1 VP for killing the second and third enemies with markers.

</tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Wyrmblade Assassination"> Note - This counts as the Elimination Spec Op for terms of repeating

1. Insidious Invasion: Finish five games where you scored VP from the Interloper, Capture Hostage & Infiltrate and Behind Enemy Lines Tac Ops. A lot of this requires footwork and making sure the enemy is distracted enough for you to finish your job.
2. Eliminate Oppressor: Finish one last game where you win VP through the Mark for Assassination Tac Op.

Completing this Spec Op scores 1 RP and the operative that accomplished the final objective gets 5 XP. In addition, you get the option to either grab a piece of rare equipment or increase your asset cap by +1. </tab> <tab name="Spec Ops - Clandestine Warfare"> Note - This counts as the Purge Order Spec Op for terms of repeating

1. Shadow Engagements: Finish five games where you scored VP from any of your faction-exclusive Tac Ops.
2. Return to Cult: Finish one last game where you have at least one operative within the enemy's DZ and over 2"/square from any enemies by the game's end. This isn't an actual Tac Op, so you can decide how you want to accomplish it.

Completing this Spec Op gives you 5 XP you can spread across all of your operatives while all of your operatives can auto-pass any casualty and recovery checks. In Addition, you get the option to either grab a piece of rare equipment or increase your asset cap by +1. </tab> <tab name="Battle Honors">

1. Rugged Survivalist: Recover 1 wound each activation.
2. Stubborn: Ignore all stat modifiers. This is quite awesome since this even negates the injured condition.
3. Begrudging: When this operative has lost over half their wounds and attacks an enemy, that enemy counts as if they have an additional grudge token.
4. Inveterate Toughness: Any damage that this operative suffers is capped at 4. Shrug off any instant-kill weapons like plasma and kraks.
5. Void-Dredger: Any shooting attacks against enemies within 6"/pentagon of this operative gain No Cover.
6. Honoured: Enemies don't gain a Grudge marker for killing this operative, but for inflicting the first injuries on them.

</tab> <tab name="Requisition">

• Petition the Guild (2 RP): During a Spec Op, pick a random Recon or Security Tac Op. Once you score 5 VP from that Tac Op, you can gain a piece of Rare Equipment.
• Return to the Ancestor (1 RP): When an operative dies and fails recovery, they can be sacrificed to give a number of RP equal to their rank. Useless on absolute rookies, save it for when someone more significant is lost.
• Their Hearth Burns (1 RP): When an enemy kills one of your operatives, that operative now gains a lasting grudge against the enemy faction. Any attacks against this faction count as if they have an additional grudge token. The grudge is only settled once they kill three enemies of that faction or sacrifice d6 XP.

</tab> <tab name="Assets">

• Enhanced Pan Spectral Scanner: Lets you re-roll to determine who is the attacker and who is the defender.
• Excavation Machinery: If you are the defender or picked the Fortify scouting option, you can move one piece of Heavy terrain within 3"/square of your DZ up to 3"/square in any direction.
• Supply Hold: You have double the equipment available in your stash.

</tab> <tab name="Rare Equipment">

1. A Grudge Declared (3 EP): Once per game, you can pass up using a ploy to mark one enemy with a grudge.
2. Darkstar Weapon (2 EP): One melee weapon gains Rending.
3. Relic Plate (3 EP): When the bearer rolls for saves, they can re-roll one save.
4. Right of Claim (3 EP): When the bearer is within 2"/circle of an objective, they add +1 to their Defense. Excellent for tanking extra punishment.
5. Grav-Lift Platform (2 EP): A single-use item you can place on the 6"/pentagon of the bearer. Anyone who moves within 1"/pentagon of the platform gains the Fly keyword for the activation.
6. Ion Expediter (3 EP): The bearer's Ion Pistol or Ion Blaster adds +1 to both damage stats.

</tab> </tabs>

HS Special Rules

• GRUDGE: You're space dwarves, grudgin's your deal. Any time an enemy kills one of your operatives, the enemy gains a Grudge token. When attacking this enemy, you can use a token to turn a hit into a crit.
• Steady Advance: Your squats ignore all movement modifiers on account of their stubby legs.

HS Units

The Recon/Security fireteam is composed of 10 of the following:

• 1 Hearrthkyn Theyn
• 9 of the following:
  • 0-9 Hearthkyn Warriors
  • 0-3 Hearthkyn Gunners
  • 0-1 Hearthkyn Dôzr
  • 0-1 Hearthkyn Field Medic
  • 0-1 Hearthkyn Grenadier
  • 0-1 Hearthkyn Jump Pack Warrior
  • 0-1 Hearthkyn Kinlynk
  • 0-1 Hearthkyn Kognitâar
  • 0-1 Hearthkyn Lokâtr
  • 0-1 Hearthkyn Lugger

• Hearthkyn Theyn (Combat, Staunch, Marksman): Your average stuntie has the wound count of an average guardsman with that ever-valuable 3+ save, which means a lot for your leader. Even better is their ability to mark someone for a good Grudge each activation.
  • The guns loadout for the Theyn is more than a little insane. The Autoch-Pattern Bolt Pistol and Bolter both provide the same damage and Ceasless, making the option for the pistol rather superfluous - at least the Bolt Revolver sacrifices Ceaseless for the bigger damage on a crit. The same issue is repeated with the Ion Blaster and Ion Pistol, as both get P1 and the same damage, and the pistol is pointless when the EtaCarn Plasma Pistol gets better crit damage and AP1 on all hits.
  • Your melee weapons are thankfully less dense. The Concussion Gauntlet is your strongest weapon with Stun added, but it's a little unwieldy to wear with a 4+ WS. The Plasma Axe gives you a reliable 5/5 damage but the Plasma Sword has the odds for stronger crits thanks to Lethal 5+.
• Hearthkyn Dôzr (Combat, Staunch): Despite wearing void suits, this particular stuntie got the balls to take off the sleeves of this pressurized suit to instead wear knuckle dusters (called Concussion Knux cuz EXTREME). These knuckles aren't too shabby either, as they have 4/4 damage with Ceaseless and Lethal 5+ to more easily trigger Stun on a crit. Even better, fighting this bastard makes combat reinforcement shenanigans fall flat and can make one final swing before dying.
  • Has a special action that knocks an adjacent enemy square/3" back and deals d3+1 MWs, with a 3 also robbing the enemy of 1 APL on their next activation. For this reason, it would be a nice trick to keep the Dôzr close to any key operatives when near a melee-heavy force and act as their bouncer.
• Hearthkyn Warrior (Staunch, Marksman): Your workaday squat is pretty tough with 7 wounds and a 3+ save, which puts them a little above a guardsman if not for their slow two circles/4" movement. Uniquely, every Warrior (as well as many other operatives without bespoke weapon choices) has the option between an Autoch-Pattern Bolter and an Ion Blaster. The difference between the two rests upon how much you value the reliability of Ceaseless over the potential armor-punching power of P1.
• Hearthkyn Gunner (Staunch, Marksman): Gives you your variety of heavy guns. The EtaCarn Plasma Beamer is high-powered with AP2 while Beam makes any crits makes it draw a line to hit another enemy in it for d3 MWs. The HYLas Auto Rifle gives you something pretty decent with Relentless and Rending while the HYLas Rotor Cannon is a Heavy gun with Ceaseless and Fusillade to cover the field while Scan ignores obscuration. The L7 Missile Launcher has two firing modes, one being a crowd-covering Blast while the other's a high-powered AP1 shot. The Rail Rifle gives a high-powered gun, getting AP2 and MW2 on crits, but Unwieldy makes it unable to be used in Overwatch.
• Hearthkyn Grenadier (Staunch, Scout): Not only do they get a Gravitic Concussion Grenade, they also get a single-use C8 HX Grenade for a more direct if short-ranged explosive. They also have a special utility grenade they can set up anywhere within 6"/pentagon to set up a 3"/square bubble with one of three effects: Either operatives need to spend an additional 2"/circle to move through it, forces all guns to suffer Range 6"/pentagon (which means nothing for any pistols equipped), or forces any objective actions to spend an additional AP to pull off.
• Hearthkyn Field Medic (Staunch, Scout): Your resident healer, complete with the keyword. They can heal nearby operatives of 2d3 wounds or resurrect a downed operative before sending them scurrying. Their Plasma Knife is as effective as their Bolt Revolver, so you're not likely to excel in any one area over the other.
• Hearthkyn Jump Pack Warrior (Combat, Scout): A bit of an oddity, as the squats never had such an ability to wear jump packs before. Mobility can be quite handy since your Kin got stubby legs - especially when you spend 2 AP to make a mad dash across the board in a straight line, moving 12"/2 pentagons. The jump pack also gives a bit of momentum as charging gives their Plasma Axe the Brutal rule, which can do a lot for their alpha-strike potential.
  • Curiously has a set of climbing gear it can lay out for his fellow Kin. Since this guy doesn't really need anything of the sort, they can lay it out on any vantage point they're near so others can climb up to join them.
• Hearthkyn Kognitâar (Staunch, Scout): An Ironkin Warrior wielding a dataslate. During the Strategy phase, you can turn down using a ploy to instead lay down an Attack or Defend token anywhere on the board - Attacking enemies within 3"/square of an Attack token can re-roll a hit roll, friendly units within 3"/square of a Defend token can re-roll a save. This requires quite a bit of setup to work properly, but you fortunately get a special action to reposition the token if you need it.
• Hearthkyn Kinlynk (Staunch, Scout): This particular warrior has their own special vox relay system to feed AP to friendly Kin within 6"/pentagon of them. On top of this, you can also use those comms to jam up enemies, blocking an operative from acting until everyone else has. Great for denying an enemy their key player since this power only requires LOS.
• Hearthkyn Lokâtr (Staunch, Scout): Warrior wearing a wrist-mounted scanner. They mess a lot with the pregame setup, denying the enemy movement from using Recon for a scouting option as well as denying the enemy the ability to deploy outside of their DZ. They also get a special action to deploy a Scan marker on the board - any attacks against enemies within 3"/square of the token gain No Cover.
• Hearthkyn Lugger (Staunch): Because someone had to be the pack-mule for the squad. Not only do they get to perform objective actions at a 1 AP discount, but they also get 5 EP worth of extra gear. On top of that, they have an endless bag of wargear, letting an operative within 1"/triangle change their loadout to anything you need. While this won't do anything for any special equipment, this does give you the means to switch things up on the enemy.

HS Ploys

<tabs> <tab name="Strategic Ploys">

• Need Keeps (1 CP): Mark one objective. Your operatives count their APL as one higher in terms of capping it, so you can edge out rivals from capping a point.
• Proximate Firepower (1 EP): +1 to the BS of any operatives that shoot within 6"/pentagon of them. Pretty much a no-brainer for any pistols you take.
• Toil Earns (1 CP): Mark one objective. Enemies within 3"/square of that objective gain a Grudge token. Great for helping you blast a key unit off a point.
• Wrought Defense (1 CP): Whenever your operatives roll for saves, rolling a critical save lets you also turn one failed save into a pass.

</tab> <tab name="Tactical Ploys">

• The Ancestors are Watching (1 CP): When one uninjured operative is activated, they can make a free Fight or Shoot action to lay on the aggression.
• Hardy (1 CP): One operative can degrade a critical hit they suffer into a basic hit, though any crit effects will still go through. Don't run into meltas, don't think yourself immune to snipers.
• Rampart (1 CP): Use during the Deployment step. You can either take the Fortify scouting option on top of whatever you already picked, make one piece of Light terrain within 3"/square of your DZ into Heavy terrain or turn one Light barricade you set up into a Heavy barricade.
• Worth It (1 CP): Lets an operative perform a free mission action before they die. Of course, this is only worth using if you aren't using a Tac Op that requires you to pick up something.

</tab> </tabs>

HS Strategies

HS Strategies:

Strategies for playing as this faction go here

Counterplay:

Strategies for playing against this faction go here

HS Example Teams

Standard Kill Teams